Heidi 'Hellcat' Harris
by WhatTheHammer
Summary: Heidi has come uninvited to WWE for one thing: to get her brother Husky back from the evil NEXUS. She will do whatever it takes to save him and defeat Wade Barrett and his dogs, but things don't always go according to plan...
1. Enter HHH

"We have with us tonight a new commentator, ladies and gentleman, a Miss Lily Stark, welcome Lily!" Jerry Lawler said from the commentators table, gesturing to a lovely woman to his right. She looked to be in her early 20's, long brown hair cascading over her teal dress, a headset on her head as she smiled and waved to the camera.

"Thanks Jerry, always a pleasure to be here in good old Louisiana," Lily replied as she pushed on her earpiece a bit to adjust the level of reverb she got.

"I hear it that you don't do any drugs or alcohol either, Lily, is that true?" CM Punk asked, looking at her as if he'd never seen a female so close in real life before, a sparkle in his eyes that was all too male.

Lily looked over at him and nodded politely, though she turned away as soon as she was through acknowledging that she'd heard him. "Yes, that's true, though I don't quite make as big a deal of it as some," she said, a little smile on her lips as she and Jerry Lawler shared a silent snicker.

CM Punk's face suddenly went red and he scowled for a moment before adding rather childishly, "I also hear you're an ex-girlfriend of one of the wrestlers, care to share who the not-so-lucky guy was?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest and staring her down smugly, pleased to have gotten one.

Lawler looked at Lily quickly, astonished at what he had just heard, his face a portrait of surprise.

"You never told us that, Stark! You _have_ to share now!"

Lily glared at CM Punk, her brown eyes searing him like a hunk of misshapen meat. However, she was a lady and simply tossed her hair over her should in a way that was certain to catch attention, and replied, "Husky Harris and I were high school sweethearts. As you can see, he is no longer my type." She emphasized her point by looking up to the stage where Wade Barret and the Nexus were closing in on the ring with John Cena in the middle.

"You're pathetic, Wade," Cena taunted into the microphone to the crooked-nosed Brit across the ring from him. "You _and_ your dog _and_ the chick from Wendy's _and _the guy from Fashionable Male!" The large blonde with his buzzed hair and square chin plucked at his purple shirt and shook his head to Wade Barret. "Can't fight without them, can hardly fight with them, you are the most laughable group in the ring!"

The crowd went wild, the whoops for Cena reaching the ceiling and reverberating back until there was a perpetual roar in the background, rising every time Cena challenged the Nexus and their foul leader.

The greased-back British guido, Wade Barret, had a sour expression on his face as if he were watching awful things happen, like friendship and kittens and Christmas. His hand came forward and he pointed a finger at John Cena and his purple shirt, holding that pose in his black and yellow uniform before speaking.

"The Nexus are a strong group of strong wrestlers, who, I might add, have trounced you more than once, more than twice, Cena." Wade's voice rose in volume until he was shouting into the microphone, his finger jabbing the air in front of him as his point became increasingly accusatory.

Boos bounced around the arena as Wade turned around with his arms outstretched, obviously asking his fellow Nexus members to come closer and instill fear with their power in numbers, the only real advantage the Nexus had.

On cue, Husky came up and hoisted himself onto the ring, leaning on the ropes as if he were ready to be tagged in. McGillicutty came up on the other side, Otunga on the far edge, Gabriel on the right, and finally Slater sat on the corner of the ring with his legs dangling over the side, all of them watching Cena with hungry looks like a bunch of obedient mongrels.

Just then, the microphones let out a shrill shriek and both John Cena and Wade Barret looked into their hands with confused and annoyed expressions. Cena took a step back to see if they needed to put distance between themselves but as soon as his foot planted behind him, the lights around the entire arena flickered once and then went out.

Total blackness fell upon them like a dark blanket and the crowd became panicked.

Jerry Lawler's voice was heard saying, "Ladies and gentleman, please…" before it disappeared, the power supply to his headpiece cutting out as suddenly as sharply as a slap to the face.

The noises in the darkness were uncomfortable. People shifting, small children crying, adults muttering to each other about what could possibly be happening. Was this a ploy by the Nexus and Wade Barret? Would the lights come on and Cena would be missing? In the audience there was no way to know that the wrestlers and the commentators were just as clueless as they were, or that this wasn't all part of the plot.

Just as the fears and murmurs were starting to reach their peak, a voice was heard coming from all the speakers.

An unknown voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to intrude like this but you see, I have personal business to attend to here."

The voice was distinctly female and sounded somewhere between girlish and mature, though lined with an edge of grit that foretold of a determination that would not be diluted.

"Wade Barret, I believe you have someone who belongs with _me, _and I am here to take him back. No matter the cost, no matter the obstacles, I have come for my brother and I _will not_ leave without him!" the voice shouted.

Just then, the sound came back on, just in time for the audience to hear Cena and Barret stop arguing at the voice's implication. If she was there to quarrel with Barret then the Brit couldn't be the force behind this ploy, but if not him then who? It was preposterous to think that one of the Nexus had a baby sister who was hellbent on bringing him back home, and CM Punk was the first to point this out, his voice a nice change from the angry girl's.

"Wade Barret and the Nexus, do any of you have a snot-nosed little sister who has come to bring you home to mommy?" he asked, every word dripping with sarcasm. Lawler was chuckling into his hand but Lily, who had up until this point, shown great poise, was suddenly slamming her fist on the table and laughing as loudly as a hyena, though had the lights been on, it would have been obvious that she had started laughing _before_ CM Punk made his snide remark…

The voice was not through, however, and all went silent as the mystery woman continued her speech.

"I have only one question now… " and she went silent for dramatic affect. "Who will oppose me?" she asked, her voice a growl into the microphone, wherever it and she were.

The voice stopped talking but the sound of footsteps was heard as the voice went silent. Every passing moment drew her nearer, whoever and whatever she was, she had captured the attention of a many-thousand crowd as well as put Wade and Cena on their toes.

Step, step, step, step

And finally, the lights came back on. Everyone, from the audience members to the wrestlers to the cameramen was looking left and right, trying to find where the girl was. There was no sign of a stranger at any of the exits, none of the aisles had stray figures in them, and even the sound of her footsteps had disappeared which meant one of two things: she had turned her microphone off or had stopped moving entirely.

Lily Stark was still laughing, clutching her sides as if this impromptu gag were the single most hysterical thing that had ever happened to her. She brought her nicely manicured nails to her eyes to dab the water there and she inhaled deeply to steady herself, shaking a bit of curled hair from her fair face.

By this point, Lily's reaction had caught the attention of all the wrestlers in the ring, though Husky was pointedly ignoring her, though doing so rather poorly. He stole glances at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking, an act that the cameramen exploited perfectly.

John Cena, who looked bemused, scratched his head as he lifted his microphone and waited for Lily to realize that he was looking at her. When it became clear, Lily's eyes went wide for a moment and her mouth shut rather quickly, holding inside the last remnants of her giggles.

"Stark, is this _your_ doing?" he questioned, giving her those eyes that demanded she not lie to him.

Lily shook her head, but the cat-ate-the-canary grin on her face indicated that she knew more than she was letting on, a fact easily detected by Jerry Lawler. He leaned on his elbows and looked over at her.

"Lily, do you know who it is?" he prodded with a smirk. His gut told him that she probably had an idea as to who was behind the stunt and he went with it, carefully studying the young woman's reactions to gauge whether or not he had hit his mark.

Wade Barrett, however, was much less subtle.

"She hasn't got any sort of power to pull the stupid ploy we just saw. I say it was _you,_ Cena! Trying to distract me and the Nexus with some blasted little girl…"

_WHACK!_

As quickly as he had started speaking, Wade Barrett stopped as a shoe came flying at his head from somewhere below him, somewhere out of the ring. The black, leather soled projectile connected with the front of his face, blasting him right in the teeth. His expression for the fleeting instance when he was not glaring at everything, was one of cross-eyed astonishment as the shoe fell to the ring, between him and Cena. The other members of Nexus looked around to where the shoe could have come from but nobody saw anything.

John Cena stepped forward and picked up the shoe, holding it up so that he could see it.

"Size 7?" he asked incredulously, looking it over, the shoe appearing to be very small in his enormous mitt.

"Yeah, size _seven,_ Cena," the voice said, only this time much closer…

The audience gasped.

There she was. Standing with a hand on her hip, one shoe missing, was the owner of the voice. If her bark had been any worse then the laughter that followed would have been a thousand times stronger, but the girl who stood before them all was not at all as big as her voice. She stood a measly 5'2 but was glaring down Wade Barrett as if he were the foulest thing she had ever laid eyes on. Her curly blonde hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail. Her attire was almost as ridiculous as she was, but somehow just as serious. There were kneepads over her black capris, elbow pads, and a white hoodie with a pair of ears on the hood, which she wore over her head so that she looked like a very angry kitten.

"What is she _wearing?"_ Lawler asked; gesturing towards her with his palms up and shoulder shrugged in complete confusion. "Does she have war paint on?"

In a clean hop she made it to the outer ring and scurried through the ropes to enter, pushing by David Otunga with a stiff shoulder into his ribs. Once she was in the ring, she stood in front of Cena, making it appear very much so that they were a team about to go into battle, and folded her arms over her chest.

"I'm going to take one of your men, Wade," she stated matter-of-factly, her eyes dead set on her British opponent. "I'm taking back my brother, Husky Harris!"

It was at this point that the crowd went wild, some applauding, some jeering, others laughing, but most of them were whooping and hollering. The noise became deafening but the commentators, who had not forgotten about Lily's confession, were now hounding her for more information.

"_Did you know about this?"_

"_That's Husky's kid sister?"_

"_Why does she want him back so badly?"_

"_Do you know that shrimp?"_

"_What does she think she's gonna __**do**__?"_

Lily settled them down by pushing her palms towards them to try and get them to back off to let her tell her story, but the girl in the ring answered for herself.

"CM Punk, I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm taking my brother home, away from this stupid Nexus club, and anyone who stands in my way is considered an opponent," she challenged, looking each of the Nexus in the eye, even Husky, who was clearly not intimidated by his sister.

Wade glared at his new adversary and chuckled derisively as she yanked the shoe from John Cena's hand and shoved it back on her foot with a few hops to keep herself upright. Behind her, Cena was leaning comfortably against the ropes, watching the scene unfold with the utmost interest.

"A little girl is going to oppose _me? __**ME?**_ Wade Barrett doesn't fight little girls but I'll make an exception for you, pipsqueak." His eyes turned suddenly very cold and he looked up to Husky, who seemed not to know what to do or what was expected from him. He kept looking from his sister to Lily Stark, and then back to Wade Barrett. There was a war taking place inside of him: he didn't want his little sister to embarrass him further, but if Wade was going to hurt her…

The blonde girl stomped her foot on the ground and stormed right up to Wade Barrett, scarcely coming to the middle of his chest, but she glowered up to him like she was 7 feet tall.

"My name is Heidi "Hellcat" Harris, and you won't even know what _hit_ you, _just like that shoe!"_ She reminded, driving her thumb into her chest as she spoke her name.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Jerry Lawler said, throwing up his palms to get everyone to slow down. "Heidi, you can't just show up to every match that involves the Nexus, you're not a part of the WWE…"

_DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO_

The crowd and the wrestlers went wild as the arena played the noise that everyone knew to herald a message from the GM.

Michael Cole put on his glasses and stood up, making his way to the podium on tremulous feet. Whatever was going on was surely going to be put to a stop now. This girl, while spirited, had no place interfering in matches in the WWE! She wasn't a professional! Was she even of age?

Heidi was standing indifferently in the middle of the ring, staring down her brother like a lion would a disobedient cub. However everyone else's attention, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, Justin Gabriel, Wade Barrett, and John Cena's were all zeroed in on what the message could possibly be. It had to be about the intruding family warrior, telling her that she had no place in a competition like this where she was likely to get hurt.

Clearing his throat, Michael Cole opened the laptop and clicked on the message.

"I understand, Wade, that you have just had a challenge posed to you and all of your men. Though many would like to see her succeed, everyone knows that it is impossible for a wrestler to compete in matches unless they are an employee of WWE."

The audience booed loudly and Heidi, feeling as if they were on her side, grinned from ear to ear at the warm reception she was getting already amongst perfect strangers. Lily, who had been listening closely, just rolled her brown eyes and slumped in her chair to show disapproval.

Michael Cole went on.

"However, seeing as how you and the Nexus show up to fights at which you are not welcome, I shall allow Ms. Harris to do the same. Until she interrupts as many fights as you have, I will look the other way regarding her illegal WWE status."

Michael Cole then took his glasses off, shut the laptop, and returned to his seat.

The arena was silent for a split second and then everyone erupted into riotous applause and boos alike. The Nexus were scrambling into the ring now, pushing John Cena out of the way to get to Heidi, to strike her down before she had the chance to inflict any damage at all. She was just a kid, after all, not a professional like all of them…

Three Nexus collided headfirst and went down, leaving only Husky and Heath Slater to try anything on Heidi, who had jumped at the last moment, right over the heads of her pursuers. As the injured ones rolled on the ground, Heidi scrambled between Heath's legs and then used her height to her advantage. With a sharp elbow to the inside of Heath's knee, Hellcat Harris brought him down and then wrapped her arm around his head in a lock that was squeezing the air out bit by bit, a savage look of glee on her face as she took out her frustrations on one of the stupid buffoons her brother hung out with these days…

But before Heath was spent, Wade Barrett grabbed a hold of the small girl and ripped her off of his lapdog with a slight jerk of his arms, holding her up by the back of her hoodie so that her feet dangled off the floor, like a dog carrying her young. Heidi took a number of swings at Wade but his reach was longer and Heidi was unable to lay so much as a fingernail on him, though she did struggle terrifically to get closer.

Husky was watching, holding up Heath as the redhead gained his breath back and rubbed his knee. The older brother just watched and shook his head. These people didn't know Heidi like he did, didn't know that she'd follow this course until it either killed her or she won. There was no retreat. There was no backing down. He was angry with her, furious even and soon he had worked himself into lather about his dumb kid sister's actions.

Heidi had finally stopped struggling so much now that the hoodie was beginning to cut off her air supply. Stubbornly she refused to make a big deal of her problem but the way she clutched at the neck of her garment and the flush of her face spoke volumes.

"Oh, this does not look good for Heidi Harris. A nice little stunt, but the kid is in over her head," Lawler said with disappointment as he watched the scene unfold between the large Brit and the gasping blonde.

"Actually, she's not a kid," Lily corrected calmly, though she was glued to the action in the ring, her fist clenching tightly as she watched that British prick practically strangle Heidi. "She's got to be 20 by now, maybe 21… COME ON, REF!" she shouted, standing up and slamming her hands down on the tabletop so that CM Punk, Jerry Lawler, and Michael Cole all looked sharply to their right at Lily on the end.

Heidi had a hold on Wade's wrist and was digging her fingernails into it as hard as she could, raking them towards her so that rows of his skin came up and blood started to pour from the wounds, but he did not relent. It seemed he too knew something about not playing by the rules.

By now, other wrestlers backstage had heard the riots and came out front, listening and watching with keen interest as the single most insane thing happened on RAW, even several from Smackdown were there, Jack Swagger being one of them, folding his beefy arms over his chest with a stupid look on his face.

"All right then, Heidi," he said, letting her drop to the mat where she rolled for a minute to catch her breath and then hopped right back to her feet. "I'll humor you. Go ahead and come to my matches. Go ahead and have your little game with all of us, but know that everything you do is going to come down on Husky's head!" he roared, moving swiftly and suddenly to throw Husky into a headlock and then slam his face into the mat.

Heidi had perhaps thought of doing just that a hundred times. She was undoubtedly the one person in the ring with enough history with Husky to warrant smashing his face into the mat. However, watching her number one enemy brutalize her brother was the single worse thing that Wade Barrett could have done.

A roar rent the air and Heidi, who had prepared for this very moment for months, sprung for Wade Barrett headfirst. Wrapping her arms around his legs, she snapped them shut so that he lost his balance and then fell over. Then, with surprising strength, Heidi Harris bent one of Wade's ankles and held him in an ankle lock, twisting with all her might to keep him pinned. She had not accounted for Wade's size, however, and he easily kicked his leg a bit and sent her flying into the ropes, spread eagle.

But fate was on her side…

Wade had not moved since his kick and Heidi volleyed off of the ropes back at her opponent, this time wrapping her whole body around his front. Gripping tightly, she clenched her eyes shut and brought her head forward, crushing her skull into his.

The cocky Brit wobbled for a minute and then fell down to the mat with a resounding THUD and brought his hands up to his skull to cradle it, rolling on his back like a baby in a cradle.

The ref looked to Cena who shrugged. Looked to Husky who was lying on the floor next to his boss. Looked to Wade who made no motion to get up. He then looked to Heidi, who appeared very pleased with herself and was jumping up and down in the ring with her arms in the air, hollering in the affirmative.

Sighing, the ref had no other choice than to grab Heidi's wrist, thrust it into the air and declare, "Tonight's winner is Heidi Hellcat!"

The mixed boos and applause nearly shattered the windows on the place as Heidi climbed up on the ropes and beat her little chest like a beast, whooping in her victory as the world of WWE was turned on its ear in the blink of her eye.


	2. Hellbent on Husky

That night, waiting in the parking lot, Heidi Harris leaned against the familiar old Bronco truck that she knew to belong to her brother, Husky. After her stunning victory over Wade Barrett and the Nexus she was feeling brash, nigh untouchable, and confronting her brother had been on her mind since the very beginning. Now that she knew she could feasibly win again, she was eager to see her kin.

Of course, there was that voice in the back of her head that kept reminding her that she had only won because of Wade's miscalculation with his kick. Had he not sent her so roughly into the ropes she never would have volleyed back at him with such force, giving her the element of surprise that allowed her headbutt to hit home.

That was a mistake she was sure Wade Barrett wouldn't make again. He was a snake, but snakes were clever, after all.

After the minutes turned into an hour, Heidi hopped up on the hood of the Bronco to wait more comfortably in a seated position. Leaning against the windshield she watched the cars around her slowly become peopled and then drive away with her head shoved far down into her hood and her arms tucked around her so that it was not obvious that she was the girl from the ring. One by one, everyone left and Heidi came out from hiding until there was only one car left in the parking lot, a green and shiny sedan with tinted windows and a license plate that read "BKR8V."

Still clad in her outfit from the ring, Heidi was not difficult to spot, perched on top of Husky Harris' clunky truck like some sort of angry hood ornament.

Lily Stark fished in her purse for her keys as she exited the back of the arena, a long button-up white jacket thrown over her teal dress so that you could only see calves and white shoes underneath. She was walking comfortably, as if she paraded around professionally in heels all the time, but her eyes were zeroed in on her purse, which she held only by one strap so that the mouth was wide for her rummaging hand.

The tall, leggy brunette got within 15 feet of the clunky Bronco and was startled out of her stilettos when Heidi announced her presence by standing up suddenly on the hood of the sports vehicle.

"Lily! Its me!" Heidi announced sincerely with a beaming grin on her face, hand on her hips like some sort of knee-pad wearing superhero.

Lily laughed and put her hand over her heart to try and stop its racing.

"JEEZ Heidi, you scared the living daylights outta me! Don't do that, its almost 2 in the morning and I thought I was alone," Lily said, fanning her face and laughing a little. Though Heidi was a few years younger than she and Husky, the two had always maintained a very friendly bond.

"Sorry, Lil," Heidi apologized, hopping from the hood of the car to land, catlike, a few paces in front of Lily, her blonde hair following behind her like the wake of a shooting star. Standing up from the crouch she'd caught her fall with, Heidi fell in line with Lily's stride and walked to her car with her.

"So you're really here for Husky?" Lily asked as she unlocked her shiny green sedan with the key and put her purse in the passenger's seat. She knew that nothing would dissuade Heidi from her chosen course, so Lily did not bother telling her to be careful, or anything mundane like that. If Heidi was here, she knew the risks.

The short blonde nodded, her hands deep in her hoodie pocket.

"Yeah, I'm not leaving without him." Her face was set, her jaw locked into place as she spoke and she stared with frightening intensity forward, looking into some future where she and Husky went home after thoroughly trouncing the Nexus. Her green eyes then shot back over to Lily, who was leaning against her car with her arms crossed comfortably over her neatly pressed white jacket. "This isn't about fame or anything, though that was nice," Heidi added, a grin taking over her face for a moment, recalling the thrill. "But Husky needs me, even if he doesn't realize it. You saw what Wade did! Husky's better than all that!"

Lily nodded, patting Heidi on the shoulder like an older sister might. "I know," she said soothingly. She sighed and shook her head through a laugh. "You're going to meet a lot of goons in this world, Hellcat Harris. You had better watch yourself from all angles. I wouldn't put it past the divas to be mad at you for fighting, and lets not forget that you'll be interfering with a number of other wrestlers who want to defeat the Nexus cleanly, and _then_ there's the attention you're already getting," Lily said, gesturing towards the huge arena behind her. "Do you know how many people asked me if they could follow me to meet you? You're going to become some sort of wrestling icon and not even mean to!"

Heidi looked up as Lily said this, her eyes furrowed in thought. Deep down she knew she needed someone on the inside, someone with whom she could ally herself, but she was not so foolish as to trust anyone _here._ Who was worthy of her trust? Lily could only help so much, she wasn't about to get into the ring. Randy Orton had beef with Nexus but he was a lone wolf as far as Heidi could tell and would probably laugh at her if she asked for his help. Rey Mysterio had a family to think about, and Heidi wasn't about to ask Edge…John Cena? Well he was the most likely not to play a dirty trick on her, and he had his own vendetta against the Nexus…

"You're right, Lil," Heidi said as she tucked a few ideas away for later. She then turned a convincing look to Lily. "I'll watch myself. At least the GM gave me a clear pass! I was ready to start bullying some techy geeks to help me get by security! Changing arenas all the time makes a girl's life hard," she said seriously, shaking her head as she remembered all the planning it took for her to pull off her light and audio stunt that night. She'd grabbed two AV guys when they weren't looking and convinced them (or scared them, whichever) to help her out, but she hardly expected that to be the norm.

The laughter on Lily's lips died as another pair of footsteps approached them, louder, heavier, and the only car around belonged to…

Husky.

He stood by his truck, no more than ten feet away, looking at the two women from his past with a dead expression on his face, which was still bandaged from where Wade Barrett had brutalized him.

Heidi sprung forward like a blonde bullet and planted her feet in front of her older brother, looking up at his towering height the same way she had for years: with outright defiance when the time called for it.

"What do you want, Heidi? Haven't you done _enough?"_ he asked venomously, unable to look away from his kid sister's penetrating glare.

The verbal dart punctured a bit of Heidi's pride and she deflated some at the memory of how Husky came to be hurt. Wade was smarter than he looked; he knew that Heidi was filled with familial spirit and young bravado. The young woman looked back up to Husky, her fists clenched at her sides. Even if she felt guilty, she was there for the big picture. Losing small battles along the way was just a part of fighting.

"All of that," she replied, pointing to his face, "is Wade Barrett's doing. He's just proving my point for me! He doesn't care about you or any of the Nexus and is only using you to fight his battles for him!"

At this point, Lily thought the better of getting into the middle of _that_ argument, and snuck into her car, starting up the engine. She drove the short ways over to where Heidi and her brother were facing off and rolled down her driver's side window to talk to Hellcat, who turned almost completely around when she heard Lily's car start.

"Hey!" Lily greeted, "use this to get back in, there's a gym backstage where you can practice, all right?" she said, tossing Heidi her badge to the building. "I'm off tomorrow and we'll be here for a few days so get the most out of it. BYE!" And then Lily drove off, but not without shooting Husky Harris a glare that would have crippled Hercules.

"THANKS LILY!" Heidi barked after the shiny green car that shot away like a ball from a cannon, leaving smoke and the smell of burnt rubber behind. Heidi looked at the badge and then wrapped the lanyard around her neck and turned back to face her brother, but he too had slunk into his truck.

"HEY!" she shouted, leaping towards the Bronco as it roared wildly to life. Heidi caught the side mirror with one hand and balanced on the running board. Inside the truck, Husky slammed his hands against the steering wheel and then cranked the window down by hand, glowering at his sister, but not pressing the gas.

"I don't need you help, Heidi. I left home for a reason and I'd just as soon leave it and everyone else there _BEHIND!"_ Husky replied, showcasing his powerful vocals that were clearly a family trait.

He then grabbed Heidi's hand and ripped it off of his side-view mirror, gripping tightly so that she didn't fall, but flailed as her anchor was torn from her. Heidi tried to keep her balance and brought her other arm up to grip her brother's wrist. Her face was saddened, suddenly very soft and vulnerable as she looked into the cab of the truck. It almost looked as if she were about to cry, but her watery green eyes did no such thing.

"Some of us are not so easily left behind," she replied doggedly, staring him right in the eye as she said so. Heidi then sharpened her gaze and yanked her hand from his grasp. Once free, she hopped off of his truck. "So go ahead and whine about how _awful_ your life was back home but you and I both know that leaving home and joining with the Nexus are connected!"

Husky revved his engine and shifted into first gear, not even bothering to roll the window up so that he couldn't hear Heidi.

"YOU'RE TRYING TO REPLACE FAMILY!" Heidi shouted after the Bronco as it tore across the parking lot with speed only matched that night by Lily and her hasty getaway.

Sighing, Heidi watched her brother run and stuffed her hands back into her pockets.

This wasn't over yet. Not hardly.


	3. Swaggering Idiot

Heidi woke up and instantly wished she hadn't. Her neck had an awful crick in it and she managed to roll up onto her knees to rub her aching shoulders.

There were a few things that Heidi had overlooked in her journey to reclaim her brother from the Nexus, and one of those was lodging. Without money (and she had spent almost all of her summer job savings just getting the ticket to Louisiana) there was no place she could afford to stay! So Heidi, ever the resourceful one, had tucked herself in a broom closet in the arena, using her suitcase as a pillow.

_That_ was the decision she regretted the most and as she stood up she kicked at the old blue thing until she stubbed her toe and then spent a few moments holding it and hopping around blurting out a few of her choicest words.

The door of the broom closet swung open with a mighty CRACK and a panting and irritable Heidi clambered out of her janitorial nest. A nearby custodian with a mop jumped out of his skin at the sound and sight of Heidi and pushed his glasses up his nose to see if he was hallucinating. Had she been there all night…?

"Whadder_you_ lookin' at, four eyes?" she asked grumpily, kicking the door shut behind her as if there was nothing at all strange about a young woman emerging from a broom closet with bed-head.

The janitor opened his mouth to say something but before he had the chance to gather his thoughts, Heidi had stomped away and left the man to his mop.

She went first to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and washed her face and of course, changed into her sparring outfit that she had washed the night before in the sinks and hung on the hooks inside the ladies restroom. When she came out to face the day a few minutes later, Heidi looked almost 100%. Her hair was up. Her clothes on. The only thing missing were the black lines under her eyes.

The day was a dead one around the arena, especially so early in the morning. It was impossible to get much rest while sleeping crammed in a closet with things like Pine-Sol and Lysol leaking on the floor, so Heidi had gotten up rather early indeed, grateful once more for the badge that Lily had given her. Without it she would probably be asleep under some overpass like a bum.

Only a few custodians were to be seen, and a couple of nameless faces wandering about in offices and taking elevators to places Heidi had no interest following. She was there for one reason and one reason only: the gym.

After a while of wandering around, Heidi finally stumbled into the gym and stood for a moment, utterly dumbfounded at the grandeur of the place. The mats were all freshly cleaned and smelled like… well they smelled like her sleeping place but it was a much more welcome scent in the gym than in _there. _There were punching bags hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room, so many of them that it looked like a Kevlar forest! And there were practice rings with elevated stages and ropes and everything a wrestler needed to make the most of their time. There were even practice dummies that you could throw about made of varying heights and weights!

Heidi, who had learned a thing or two about wrestling from her older brother ever since he'd started the sport, knew that before she was supposed to exert herself, she needed to warm up. So she took off in a wide circle around the edge of the gym, jogging comfortably for a lap and then sprinting the last one so that her legs were on fire and she put her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

However, she did not rest for long. Whatever skills she had were not going to be much against such experienced athletes, and Heidi was not about to underestimate her opponents. She needed to practice with the dummies, she knew that for certain, so Heidi went over to the clear cabinet that housed them, opening the door with gusto. However, the force with which she opened the door was too much!

"AHHHHHH!" she wailed as the fleshy fakes fell out on top of her in a landslide that soon had her buried at the very bottom. Her breath came in short gasps as she tried to feel her way to the top, fighting with every ounce of her strength to claw her way out. If she could just get a bit more leverage then she could move better but the dummies were so heavy! It was like every world heavyweight champion had fallen on her at once and she was beginning to get so tired…

NO!

Heidi knew this was part of her training. Keeping her on her toes with surprises and challenging her with the weight of them all. In a burst of strength, Heidi's fist punched out of the dummy pile, like a daisy through the snow. She clambered mightily, pulling and pushing against the heavy dummies that had held her prisoner, some of the fleshy material pulling her hair as she shouldered and elbowed her way to the top.

Once she was free and stood on top of the pile, Heidi again doubled over and took several deep breaths, hardly able to believe what a spectacle she'd already made in the short time she'd been in the gym.

"You've made a mess already? Tsk, tsk, tsk," a Latino voice jested from somewhere to Heidi's left.

She looked up, prepared for anything, staring through narrowed eyes as the figure came closer. The figure was smaller and wore a luchador's mask so it could only be…

"Mysterio?" she asked incredulously, unable to believe her good fortune. She slid down the pile of dummies on her heels and skidded to a halt on the mat a few steps from where Rey Mysterio was pulling on his black gloves. He looked up at the pile of dummies and then laughed good naturedly, pointing a finger at Heidi.

"_You,_ senorita, have some 'splaining to do," he said again with a laugh.

Heidi's grin nearly cracked her face in two and she put her hands on her belly as she laughed at Mysterio's Ricky Ricardo impersonation.

"_You,_ senor, should not quit your day job," she joked back with a finger pointed up and a wink on her face. "But no, really, sorry about all of that, I went to grab a dummy and then, well, I think you can put the rest together," she said, turning to look over her shoulder at the pile she'd climbed her way out of.

Rey Mysterio shrugged his shoulder and waved his hand at the dummies dismissively. "Like anyone else puts 'em back. You should see the place after The Big Show is done, its like a massacre took place."

Heidi smiled and looked around for a moment, trying to see which ring she preferred. Selecting the one in the very middle, Heidi grabbed the arm of a dummy from the pile and pulled with all her might until it finally dislodged and she staggered back a few paces. Hoisting it over her shoulder, the blonde made her way to the ring but found that Mysterio was already standing in the center ring, looking down at her through his mask, which was gold today.

"I saw your show last night. It was pretty good, Hellcat. I love seeing people take down Wade Barrett, and I love that you're here for your family. Family is important." While he was talking, Rey was stretching himself out a bit, shifting his head left and right and rolling his shoulders.

Looking up at him with a smile, Heidi said "thanks!" and then started to head for the other elevated ring next to the one Mysterio had claimed when the Mexican luchador called her back.

"Ey! Where are you going?" he asked, leaning on the ropes as if he were about to be 619'd.

Heidi stopped in her tracks and turned to Mysterio with "idunno" written all over her face. "Uhh… over here? To _this_ ring? To, you know, throw this thing around and stuff," she explained lamely.

Rey just laughed.

"Wouldn't you prefer to practice with someone who can fight back? Those Nexus guys are dirty players, you need some real experience, if you catch my drift."

Even from under the mask, Heidi caught the implication that Rey's waggling eyebrows foretold and she heaved the dummy off her should like it was a rag doll, her face electric with excitement.

"You mean you'll help me?" she stammered, hopping up onto the ring and bounding through the ropes like it was nothing. Now that she was closer she saw that Rey wasn't much taller than she was, though he still had a few pounds on her. He was the perfect person to help teach her the ropes!

Rey nodded his head and stepped back into a defensive stance. "Now, you're officially the smallest opponent anyone here will face so use that to your advantage," he explained as the two of them started to circle each other around the WWE logo printed on the center of the mat.

Nodding, Heidi lunged in towards Rey but he was quicker than the Nexus had been and soon had her in a headlock.

"When you're in front of your attacker, you want to remember your center of gravity. If you can get it on your side again then you can easily turn the lock against them."

Catching the hint, Heidi struggled to get her feet underneath her and then crouched. When she straightened her legs she also threw her shoulders and Rey Mysterio went flying over her head to land on his back. He looked up at her, unfazed, his eyes twinkling with smile.

"Good! Now don't forget that timing is key," he said, hopping lithely to his feet. "When you have a person down, you want to keep them that way and if you've bought yourself some time, climb on the ropes. Can you do any high-flying things? That would be good for someone your size."

Rey was now leaning on the ropes to show her how far back she should push given her weight.

"Push back until you feel your feet start to slip forward, and then run with it!"

As he spoke, he demonstrated and came running with great velocity towards Heidi. The only reaction she had any time for was to stick her foot out to trip him, a plan that worked marvelously and sent Mysterio flying into the ropes opposite him. He was used to much, _much_ worse though, and gripped the ropes with his gloved hands and swung around in a perfect 619 to land agilely in the ring behind Heidi.

"That was a good trick, it will certainly bring down some bigger opponents." Always working as he instructed, Rey kicked Heidi's knees out from under her and then grabbed at her ankles, dragging her back towards him.

"Now I want you to try climbing on the ropes," he said as he held onto Heidi's ankles with a steady grip and began to spin in circles, lifting the Hellcat off the mat and into the air with the force of his rotation.

Heidi nodded and saw her chance when Rey let go of her, letting her fly into the ropes, which she caught. Holding onto the top ones, Heidi scrambled into the corner where the ropes were the strongest, and stood up. Rey was looking up at her, daring her to try something spectacular. So, with one little bounce, Heidi sprung off the ropes and caught Rey Mysterio around the neck with the back of her knee, using the force of the jump to drive Mysterio into the mat.

However, she did not relent and she grabbed the foot of the knee that was locked around Rey's neck and pulled back behind her, letting her leg bend properly to crush the will to live out of her opponent.

Rey Mysterio struggled for a moment and then brought a hand down on Heidi's hip to drive the stretch too far and cause a flash of pain to sear through her leg, time enough to get away.

By the time Heidi got to her feet, Rey Mysterio was standing proudly, and tossed her a bottle of water from his gym bag. He leaned against the ropes and wiped some sweat from his eyes with a white towel.

"You learn fast. That last one actually hurt. Keep practicing and you'll be quite the contender," Rey Mysterio praised sincerely after taking a gulp from his own bottle.

Heidi caught the bottle and downed half of it almost instantly, forgetting how incredibly hungry and thirsty she was. Yet _another_ thing she had conveniently forgotten about: sustenance. She wouldn't be able to keep up her strength without a good diet and at this point she was considering awful alternatives, like pork rinds and pizza and pie.

"Thanks, Rey. I won't let your lessons go to waste."

Just then, a slow and methodical voith came from below them.

"Pffft, _you've_ been training her, Mythterio? Guess she'll need _me_ to teach her how to avoid that ankle lock that put you on the injured litht a while back," the voice taunted, each word pronounced spethif… spe_cifically_ so as to draw less attention to the lisp that was rather audible.

Heidi and Mysterio both looked down and saw that none other than Jack Swagger was standing there with his elbows on the elevated ring, smirking up at them with that signature stupid look on his face that you could imagine him wearing everywhere, like college and the mall.

Rey rolled his eyes and drank some more from his bottle. "Don't make me throw you into the ocean again, Swagger."

Heidi would have laughed at Mysterio's amusing remark but she was far too upset at Jack's unwarranted swagger. Just who did he think he was? She stomped her foot on the mat to direct Swagger's attention to her, arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Hey Uncle Sam, make yourself useful and clean up your brothers and sisters over there," Heidi said, thumbing over her shoulder to the pile of dummies.

Swagger leaned to the left to see where the newcomer was pointing and saw the mound of fleshy fakes, his face instantly darkening as the joke set in. By the time he got it, Mysterio and Hellcat were already laughing heartily at his expense.

"HEY! I am the former world heavyweight champion, a pothition I rightly detherve, not like _you_ were ever in the running, Mythterio. And _you,_" he said, turning his bleach blonde glare to Heidi, who returned it tenfold. He looked as if he were struggling for the words to say, like some of them were too big to fall out of his mouth. He finally threw his arms at the both of them as if to wash his hands clean, and walked out of the gym.

"Good riddance!" Heidi shouted after him, her voice echoing in the tall ceiling over and over; a hundred enormous Hellcats in the sky kicking Jack Swagger out of the gym. With her hands on her hips, Heidi took a few deep breaths to steady herself.

"Do you have to see that guy _every day?"_ she asked Mysterio as they both hopped out of the ring.

Rey nodded.

"Pretty much."

Heidi shook her head and wiped her brow with a towel that Rey had tossed her.

"Sorry to hear _that," _she said sincerely, giving wide eyes to the floor.

Rey just smiled a little and threw his bag over his shoulder. "Well I was just coming through because I heard that big crash when all those dummies fell on you. Thanks for the spar, I'll see you around, senorita." And with a winning smile, Rey Mysterio waved over his shoulder and exited the gym.

Once her impromptu lesson was over, Heidi hauled the dummy she had originally chosen as her partner into the ring and then climbed in after it. She shook loose the stiffness that had settled in after Jack Swagger's interruption and bounced from foot to foot, looking at the ropes and the dummy. Then, she took off at a sprint towards the ropes, grabbing them just the way that Rey Mysterio had shown her and swung around the top, not quite skilled enough to try the 619 but good enough to keep from flying out of the ring after being thrown.

Again and again and again she swung on those ropes until she was certain that she could thwart almost any toss, throwing herself at those until her hands were chapped and the familiar ache of blisters forming throbbed in her palms.

Swinging back into the ring, Heidi landed on the balls of her feet, one knee coming to break the fall. She got to her feet quickly and then dragged the dummy into the middle of the ring and then climbed to the top of the ropes, balancing easily. Then, bending her knees and throwing her arms back, Heidi jumped forward, clearing a lot of air, more than she had intended and she seemed to hang in the air and then watched the mat come closer and closer… Time seemed to slow as she came down and her imagination took over her. She felt the lights in her face, heard the cheering of the crowd, saw Wade Barrett lying helpless on the mat… She was fighting for a cause, Her brother Husky's freedom…

Heidi landed in a perfect formation on the back on the dummy with both knees, a move that would have damaged the spine of any strong man, and then, just for good measure, still frozen inside the idea of the dummy representing Wade Barrett, Heidi threw her arm around the dummy's neck and pulled back, her expression wild and forceful.

Roaring like some sort of feral cat, Heidi began to thrash Wade Barrett's dummy head back and forth, causing his head to collide every time.

"You should grab the foot too."

Heidi looked up from her thorough demolishing of her fake Wade Barrett, hair hanging wildly in her face having come free from her ponytail, and her green eyes burning like molten lava. Confused, she cocked her head to the side the way a bear might if you had approached it and asked it to join you for a spot of tea.

Jack Swagger was back, still dressed in his patriotic finest, a red and blue onesy with a band of white stars across his butt. Yeah, _that_ was American, Heidi thought to herself, rolling her eyes at Jack's unwanted advice.

"I'm theriouth," he continued, hopping up to the ropes and then swinging inside the ring to where Heidi still had her arm around the dummy Wade Barrett's neck. "You'll have to make thure you can hold the head with one hand but if you grab the oppothite foot then you'll have them in a great hold," he suggested, though if there was any kindness behind his offer it was completely covered up by his enormous ego, which draped every word in condescension.

She glared at him and eyed him like a hawk as he invaded her personal space.

"You're the one who makes a big deal about being American, right? With the stupid eagle and the love for your father?" she asked bluntly, hoping that she wouldn't have to take their altercation to a physical level. How much more obvious could she possibly _be_ about her distaste for him? Jeez, some dopes really needed it spelled out.

"Don't talk about my father that way! You should be grateful to get free advithe from thomeone like me, a former champion who cometh from a long line of winnerth," Swagger gloated like the blowhard he was, patting his chest with both fists as he spoke in a display of gorilla dominance.

Heidi rolled her eyes.

"Thhhhhhhhhheeeeeriothsly now, I'm not about to waste my time on a nobody like you. You're not Nexus so you're not worth knowing about and if you want to start an advice exchange then I'd suggest getting some clothes that don't have the American flag all over your loins!" Heidi countered, hopping off of her dummy and bumping chests with the All-American American, letting her unyielding eyes penetrate Jack's hollow skull.

Swagger's face started to contort with the effort of withholding his rage, the idea of pounding the girl into the mat flashing across his face but he knew he couldn't do that. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. It wasn't American.

Hellcat Heidi did not relent with her challenging look, sticking her defiance right down Jack Swagger's throat. He was so cocky, so full of himself that he couldn't even see that Heidi being here had nothing to do with him.

"I thee. I thee," he said, bobbing his head like a cat trying to follow a laser light on the wall. "You're only here for the Necthuth but _don't_ you forget that Wade Barrett hath eyeth everywhere will play dirty to get you out of hith way. You're going to _need_ thomeone who can help you, Hellcat. Perhapth thooner than you think!"

And with that, Jack Swagger stepped away with his arms outstretched, as if he were performing for a packed arena. He made sure that Heidi was watching him and then crossed over to the dummy, still lying face down. In a skilled motion, he kicked his legs out from under him so that it looked like he was sitting on a table in midair and then let his weight pull him down, driving his elbow perfectly into the back of the dummy. Then he scooped the neck in his enormously beefy arm to mimic the headlock that he had interrupted Heidi in and, to add insult to injury, Heidi was forced to watch as Swagger grabbed for a foot and forced the dummy's knee to bend in the move he had tried to suggest to her earlier.

Heidi scowled. That _was_ a good move. The buffoon had skills, she couldn't deny that, but she was now in here with professionals. Skill was a prerequisite.

"Oh, and try thethe. You're making a rookie mithtake," he added haughtily, reaching into his red and blue onesy for two black bits of cloth that he tossed to the mat by Heidi's feet.

Then, without another word, Jack Swagger stood up and walked out of the ring, hopping the ropes and landing with a resounding THUMP on the mat below, strutting out of the gym like some sort of American peacock, his white-star tail-feathers wagging.

Heidi watched him go and waited until he was out of sight before she investigated the black specs on the floor. Picking them up, she stared at them for a moment before looking back up just in time to see Jack Swagger standing in the doorway, leaning on both of his elbows as he watched Hellcat discover his generous gift to her: a pair of gloves for her chapped hands.

"OOOOUUUUTTTTT!" she roared, but Swagger simply chuckled arrogantly and turned around to exit fully.

Enraged that she'd been caught in her curiosity, Heidi fumed in the corner of the ring, leaning against the post positively steaming. THAT MAN! That _awful_ man, with his awful clothes and his awful lisp and his awful ego! However, the pain in Heidi's hands was very real and he had brought her a gift…

Pouting in defeat, Heidi slumped to where she'd tossed the gloves and pulled them onto her hands. They fit perfectly, and were fashioned in black and red, a perfect miniature of Jack Swagger's gloves.

_Of course,_ she thought. The gloves _would_ look just like his.

The rest of the day, Heidi spent practicing, trying the maneuvers Rey Mysterio had shown her, even inventing a few of her own but mostly sticking to the basics. However, when she was certain that no one was looking, and she double checked every time, she would practice the hold that Jack Swagger had shown her, hoping that someday she would have the opportunity to make that blundering gorilla sorry he'd taught her anything.


	4. ICU

The discovery that the gym also had locker rooms was a relief to Heidi, who promptly moved her things from the closet to there, finding a locker for herself (number 673) and showering to her heart's content. Sure, there wasn't much to her toiletry collection; a bar of soap and some two-in-one shampoo/conditioner, but after a night with Pine-Sol and mops and rat-traps, the clean, steamy locker room was a welcome sight indeed.

The day had passed her almost completely and by the time Heidi was dressed and ready to leave the arena it was already 7 o'clock. She could hardly _believe_ how much time she'd spent talking and practicing. It was lucky for her that few other wrestlers came in to use the gym, most of whom where nobodies, no one she cared about. Just like she'd told that stuffed peacock Jack Swagger: if they weren't Nexus then she didn't care.

Making sure that she remembered the combination to her locker before she left, Heidi stuffed her cell phone, clinging to life on its last bar, into her pocket. It was a long shot but if Husky wanted to get a hold of her then she should be prepared.

Kicking at a bit of spare paper in the hall, Heidi put her hands into her pockets and strolled towards the door, her eared hood up to keep her frown mostly hidden. Husky wasn't going to call her and she knew it. In fact, according to last night he didn't even see the connection between losing one family only to jump into a substitute one.

"How stupid do you have to BE?" she asked loudly in the middle of the hall, falling to her knees in anguish, her fists shaking towards the sky. "I will help you see the light Husky, I won't give up on yooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuu!" she vowed solemnly, making a promise with the plaques on the wall and the freshly cleaned tile.

"Uh, Heidi?"

The young woman's eyes shot open and she looked up from her mid-hall crisis to see none other than John Cena standing at the other end of the hall.

Her face went red. He'd heard her! How embarrassing…

"It _is_ Heidi, right?" Cena asked, walking closer with that casual air that suggested everything he did was as smooth as butter.

Getting to her feet, she nodded. "Yeah, it is." What luck! Just the person she wanted to see and it couldn't have come at a better time. Not only were they alone, which saved Heidi the trouble of stalking him, but he had also remembered her name!

"You're just the person I wanted to run into, Cena," she said cheerily, as if the world was shining on her. She brought her hand in front of her face and waved it to mimic his hallmark move and laughed a bit as Cena grinned and did it back. She then stopped and brought her hand down. "This is totally off topic, but I don't really _get_ that whole thing," she said, waving the hand in front of her face again so the enormous man knew what she was talking about. "I mean, I can still _see_ you, its not like all your 240 pounds just disappeared… wicka wicka…" she said, entertaining herself some more with the hand wave in front of her face.

John Cena folded his arms over his chest with a slightly amused smile and planted his feet firmly on the ground.

"Oh really? You don't like my hand thing?" he asked in a rhetorical voice that said, "you amuse me," and, "it doesn't matter" all at once.

Realizing that she had perhaps insulted the 240-pound man she had hoped to win to her side, Heidi promptly pulled her lips into her mouth and shut up, her face going a little pink as she smiled sheepishly to him.

Cena, who himself was a baby face, could not resist laughing a bit at Heidi's behavior and he gave her a smile that put her heart at ease.

"What did you want, Hellcat?" he asked, looking down at her with his big blue eyes.

"I need an ally!" she blurted out without preamble, stepping closer to Cena and holding her hands out to emphasize her point. "I've got a lot to work on here and I'm not asking you to help me fight matches or get involved in my family mess, I just want to know that there's someone here I can trust." With earnest eyes, Heidi looked at him, hoping he would believe her.

A hand came to John Cena's chin and he rubbed the blonde stubble there for a moment, gazing to the floor as he contemplated Heidi's request. The kid certainly had made quite the spectacle the night before what with her light and sound trick, then stomping Wade into the ground.

"Last night Nexus interrupted me in the middle of settling a score I need to deal with Wade Barrett alone. You know, there are a lot of guys here who don't like the Nexus," he reminded sagely, making eye contact with Heidi, who interpreted his reply to mean 'ask someone else, kid.'

Her shoulders drooped and her mouth hung open wide right before snapping shut so that she didn't further insult Cena. Even if he wasn't going to be her ally, he deserved some respect.

Cena chuckled again and reached out a big hand to tousle the top of Heidi's head between her 'ears,' her head rattling and eyes rolling in her skull until he pulled his hand away.

"But… I can't stand Barrett or Nexus. I'll keep an eye on you, Hellcat. Barrett has a match against Sheamus next week. I'll see you there," he said with a wink. Then, tipping his hat a bit to her, Cena walked down the hall and took a left, disappearing out of sight.

Heidi stood with her mouth open for a moment, following Cena's form with her slowly nodding head as he departed. She'd done it! She had someone she could trust in the organization, and so _soon_ after her debut! With Cena on her side, the matches against Nexus and Barrett didn't seem like such insurmountable tasks. Sure, she would have stuck it through to the bitter end, but now she had made arrangements for that end to be not _quite_ so bitter.

With an added bounce in her step, Heidi crossed a bulletin board and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw what was posted. She did a double take at the many sheets of paper that were tacked to the wall, but mostly a large packet caught her interest. Screaming across the front in lurid red ink were the words TOUR SCHEDULE and MATCHUPS. Whistling a little bit so as not to look any more suspicious than a girl with ears on her hoodie already did, Heidi pulled down the packet and hastily rolled it up like a newspaper and jammed it in her pocket. Any good sneak knew that the more information she had, the better.

Her stomach growled again and Heidi put her hands over it, her legs going a bit wobbly for a moment as she let the hunger pang live out its short life. She needed food, NOW.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there was likely nothing nutritious for her to swipe in the arena, so Heidi set off towards the front entrance, hoping that perhaps some vendor would take pity on her, or _something._ She knew a few songs she could sing and a few dances she could dance, but there were probably very few vendors who would sell her a hotdog for a song or dance.

Once the doors were closer, Heidi jogged a bit so she was _that_ much nearer to somewhere she could fill her stomach when all of a sudden she collided with a very large white wall.

After Cena's head rattling hair tousle, Heidi's eyes rolled around in her head a bit longer than usual, forcing her to shake her head a bit with her eyes shut to steady herself.

"Make way far the king, yeh runty snapper!" a gruff voice barked down at her.

When her eyes focused Heidi saw that she had not run into a wall, but instead had smacked right into Sheamus, who was wandering around in his black and green Celtic panties and his fluorescent skin, his red hair screaming at people as loudly as his complexion.

"Shut up, Patrick!" Heidi rebutted hotly, using the most generic Irish name that came to mind. She tried to brush by Sheamus to get to the doors since it was apparent that she had been _leaving_ when all of a sudden she _wasn't_ leaving anymore. Her feet were still trying to go forward but she remained quite in place and as she looked over her shoulder she saw that Sheamus was holding onto the back of her hoodie with his thumb and index.

She scowled at him and he got right in her face with his enormous head, his nose barely inches from her own.

"Yeh will larn the king's name, little garl. Yeh will larn respect far the king!"

Putting a hand on her hip, Heidi made to smack his hand over her shoulder but before she connected, she was spun around to face Sheamus. And then, she was airborne, _again._ Sheamus hoisted with a huge handful of her hoodie so that he could look her in the eyes, her toes dangling far off the floor.

"Yeh have fire but that won't do yeh no good unless yeh _want_ to get tossed out, see?" he said, throwing his eyes wide and tilting his head to the side as he said the last word, again putting his face dangerously close to Heidi's.

Though Hellcat was a spirited woman, the toils of the day made it impossible for her to try much of anything on someone who had120 pounds on her and was holding her in the air like a puppet. Her eyes were wide open as Sheamus got in her face with his big orange beard and his smug accent.

Then, with a thrust of his hand, Sheamus chucked Heidi, her back sailing through the entrance doors and still she flew, watching the doors close on the back of Sheamus who was still stomping around inside like an oaf.

Heidi came to a bouncing, skidding, and painful halt on her bottom and sat still for a moment as she rubbed her back and shook her fist at the now-shut front doors.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" she threatened futilely, embarrassed but otherwise undamaged. Her pride had been injured a little and she stewed for a moment on the ground, glaring daggers at the front door. Now she had _two_ people to hate: the stuffed shirt Swagger and the overgrown leprechaun.

"_Heidi?"_

Hellcat Harris looked up as she got to her feet and saw that Lily was standing by her car, this time dressed in white slacks and a purple shirt, dangling gold earrings hanging in front of her straight brown hair.

"Are you all right?" she asked, clicking up to the blonde who was bending over backward to try and work out the kink in her back after having landed hard on her buttocks, the worst injury of her day.

"Yeah, yeah, just fine," she lied through gritted teeth. It was not her intent to sound as irritable as she did but Lily knew Heidi better than that and she put an arm around her surrogate sister's shoulder to help steady the girl, who look considerably worse for wear.

"How did _that_ happen?" Lily asked curiously, looking from the door to the place where Heidi had landed unceremoniously on her rump.

"Sheamus!" she answered angrily, scowling once more at the entrance. "Jeez, run into the guy once and he's all 'don't mess with the king, yarrr!'" Heidi explained in a poor imitation of an Irish accent, but managed to mimic the mean face of Sheamus quite well. "He actually _threw_ me. _Through the doors! _What a jerk!"

Lily Stark actually winced as Heidi told her story but laughed with her head thrown back at the blonde's imitation.

"All I saw was you come flying out backwards and then bounce about five feet. I kind of figured you had managed to hack someone off," Lily said with a poorly concealed smile. She patted Heidi's shoulder and started to steer her towards the street, where the shiny green sedan was idling. "Come on, I'll take you to dinner to celebrate such a successful first day."

Heidi allowed herself to be led to the car and then, once inside, buckled up her seat and looked around the cab. There was an mp3 jack in the cigarette lighter and she instantly grabbed Lily's player to surf through her available bards.

A few seconds later, Lily got into the car and then shifted into drive and pulled away from the curb.

"You have Flyleaf? _Awesome!"_ Heidi said, setting it to play.

Lily nodded and pushed a few buttons on the stereo so that soon they were both listening to familiar songs. The two of them cranked up the volume and were soon singing at the tops of their voices to every lyric they knew, heads thrashing from side to side, blonde and brown hair flying around the cab of the sedan at every stop sign, light, and traffic jam.

By the time Lily pulled in front of a rather expensive looking restaurant her hair was unkempt, a stark contrast to Stark's usually impeccable appearance. However, she pulled down the visor and flipped up the mirror and after a few minutes of combing with a brush from her purse her sleek brown hair lay flat again and you never would have known that she'd spent the whole ride there head-banging and wailing.

"OH! Here's your badge. Thanks for letting me use it," Heidi said as she pulled the badge over her head and wrapped it around the rearview mirror. Heidi, who was lucky to have a change of clothes, looked rather out of place as the valet came up and took Lily's car keys.

"No problem, I certainly don't hang around there on my days off so its not big deal. Come on, let's eat!" she said, offering her arm to Heidi, who took it as they entered the restaurant.

Two expensive meals later, Heidi and Lily came out of the restaurant to see Lily's car waiting for them, already started, with the valet standing in front of it so that he could open their doors. Lily tipped him and then both ladies climbed into the vehicles, Heidi with her hands appreciatively resting on her tummy, which was pleasantly full.

"So where are you staying? I can drop you off," Lily offered as they pulled away from the restaurant and merged into the light traffic around the city that night.

Heidi opened her mouth to say something but then closed it immediately. She couldn't exactly tell Lily that she was sleeping in a broom closet at the arena, but without her badge she didn't have any way of even _getting_ to her broom closet.

"Uhh… " she stammered for a moment and then cleared her throat and looked out the window, clearly avoiding the subject.

Lily, who was perceptive enough to know when Heidi was skirting around issues, suddenly pulled over, and stopped the car. She looked over at Heidi, who seemed to know she was in trouble because she glanced over bashfully to the older woman.

"Heidi, where are you staying?"

Heidi groaned and gave up.

"I kind of don't have anywhere to stay. I spent all my money getting out here so last night I slept in the arena and that's where my suitcase is." Heidi explained.

Lily looked affronted and narrowed her eyes at Heidi.

"You doofus! You could have stayed with me, you know? Do you have clothes with you? Something _other_ than your practice uniform and your Hellcat hoodie?" she added, not wanting to give Heidi any loopholes.

Heidi sighed.

"This is it," she answered, gesturing down to her current attire.

Lily glared once more and then merged into traffic.

"You can grab your suitcase later. I have extra toothbrushes and all the toiletries a girl like you could ever need." Lily said with gentle sternness. She couldn't believe Heidi sometimes, so reckless and unprepared! She probably didn't want to put anyone out so she thought the next best conclusion was to sleep in a closet?

"But what about my clothes?"

"You can wear some of mine to bed. We'll get you checked in to the hotel we're staying at and then we can hit a store or two." Lily then looked over at Hellcat and shook her head. "We can't have you running around in _that_ all the time."

Soon, the two were at the hotel and riding the grand elevator up to the 25th floor, where Lily Stark's room was. Lily's heels clicked on the shining marble floors, Heidi's black sneakers made hardly a sound. The two women wove through the halls until the taller of the two, Lily, inserted a key into the door and pulled on the golden handle to show the room beyond.

Dashing in, Heidi looked around, throwing the curtains open so that she could see the lights in the city and the moon, which was no fuller than a quarter.

"Nice digs!" Heidi said in awe as she looked at the two big beds and then the enormous tub in the bathroom, running around like she'd never seen anything so fancy before. "A DVD player, PS3, XBOX, _and _a Wii?" she asked as she threw open the doors of the entertainment center. "Wow…

Lily laughed and took off her earrings, putting them into their appropriate box.

"Yeah, we do all right here. I figure you can just stay with me. I drive everywhere we go anyway, I hate taking that bus with all of them, so you can just stick it out with me. I'll see what I can do about getting you some new clothes… " Lily's face turned very grim and she sat on the edge of the bed, facing Heidi as if she had terrible news. "You _might_ have to come shopping with me."

Heidi shrugged her shoulder, grinning as she hopped onto her bed and bounced a bit but then winced as she struck a bruise on her butt that Sheamus was responsible for.

"I'm not as tomboyish as I used to be. You can even get me in pink these days," Heidi confided, elbowing the air to her right and winking as if she were sharing top-notch information.

"All right then, it's a deal."

The two girls then got ready for bed, taking turns in the bathroom, though Lily let Heidi go first since she knew there wouldn't be much to her nighttime routine. It was true, after brushing her teeth with a fresh toothbrush, coming her hair, and washing her face, Heidi emerged from the bathroom in a pair of pink pajamas with little sheep on them that looked like fat cotton balls with black stumpy legs. Her hair was down and she looked her age for once, minus the pink sheep pajamas.

Lily, however, spent about 30 minutes in the bathroom doing _god_ knows what, and by the time she came out Heidi was busily playing Wii boxing, knocking the pixilated stuffing out of an avatar with a purple shirt, doing a little dance when she KO'd him.

Climbing into her bed in her green silk nightgown, Lily pulled the covers over herself and stuck a few pillows behind her back so she could sit up.

"So, when can we expect you to interrupt Nexus again?"

Heidi looked over her shoulder and then stepped into the space between the beds so that Lily didn't have to talk to her backside.

"I grabbed a schedule of upcoming matches _and_ Cena told me himself that he'd expect to see me on Monday night when Barrett faces off with Sheamus," she replied, giving a new avatar with black glasses an uppercut that had him staggering.

Lily gawked for a moment and laughed in disbelief.

"You've already spoken to Cena?"

"Yup! I ran into him in the hall and told him I needed someone I could trust and he said he'd keep an eye out for me. Pretty cool, right?" Heidi asked, chancing a moment to look away from the television screen and grin to Lily.

"Wow, Cena and Sheamus all in one day? You're onto something big here, Heidi." Lily leaned and turned on the lamp beside her bed and then clapped her hands twice so that the overhead lights went out, leaving a softer light and giving Heidi less glare for her boxing match.

"More than that, I ran into Mysterio in the gym. He's _awesome,_ he showed me a bunch of moves and even sparred with me! I like him a lot," Heidi said with a distant smile on her face. Then her face darkened and she knocked out the avatar with black glasses with a ruthless uppercut. "But _then_ Jack Thwagger stopped by and starting smack talking and just being a jerk. Then he interrupted me again later to brag about how great he is and try to show me some moves but just being a total dick about it…" While she was explaining her interaction with Swagger, two more avatars had fallen to her, simply mauling them down as she spoke of her current least favorite person.

Wiping her forehead a bit, Heidi waited for her next avatar opponent.

"Well at least you ran into Mysterio first, he always was a nice guy," Lily said optimistically, since it wasn't necessary for either of them to waste their time bashing Swagger and Sheamus. "So you're going to interrupt Barrett's match against Sheamus?" Lily asked, her tone suggesting she thought this was a poor idea.

Heidi did not relent and sent another round of jabs to a new avatar.

"Yup."

"Even though you've already made a bit of an enemy with Sheamus, and Wade Barrett wants nothing more than to kill you?"

"Yup."

Lily sighed.

"All right then." She wished there were talking sense into the girl but, in Heidi's defense, if she had sense then she probably wouldn't have made it as far as she already had. Cena was the toughest and most successful wrestler in the entire franchise. If Heidi had already gotten him on her side then things boded well for her, even if Lily _did_ think that hopping between two people who weighed over 100 pounds more than Heidi did was stupid.

"Well I'm turning in, Heidi. Get some sleep, will you? We'll tackle shopping tomorrow," she said with a grin.

And with that, Lily turned off her lamp and left Heidi to the darkness.

Heidi moved closer to the TV, not wanting to disturb Lily as she tried to go to sleep, and kept jabbing and crossing, throwing uppercuts and body shots to the avatars, however they looked. But Heidi saw only one thing. Wade Barrett's face going down time and time and time again.


	5. Wade Barrett vs King Sheamus

"Have you seen her? She's pathetic, a simpering little girl with a serious hero complex." Wade Barrett slammed his fist on the table in the hotel room, looking at each of his Nexus individually. On the table in front of them was a photo, and all of them seemed rather upset about what it showed them.

"This _cannot_ go on," he said, stabbing his finger in the center of the photo, eyeing his men as if to question their resolve. Each of them nodded and looked determinedly back to their British boss, all except for Husky, who was sitting with his head in his hand, looking at the photo as if it were the worst news he'd gotten in a long time.

This was not supposed to happen; she_ wasn't_ supposed to follow. Stupid brat, she was in way over her head and was too blind to see it. Couldn't she see that he'd left for a reason, wanted to get out and have his own time without all them holding him back? Husky growled and set his eyes doggedly on the table where a picture of his sister was sitting. In it, she was seen talking with John Cena in what looked to be a friendly encounter.

"The girl has been here for a few _days_ and already she has allies? Allies who are in direct opposition to the Nexus?" Wade Barrett stood up and threw his arms into the air, unable to believe that something so small was causing such a ruckus. "We need to move now, we need to counter her front!" He said, walking around the table slowly, Otunga, McGillicutty, Gabriel and Slater all shivering a bit when he was directly behind them. Wade paused next to Husky, looking down at him with his small eyes, daring his dog to look back. "Her aim is stupidly simple; she only seems to be attacking _us _so we can wager that anyone she allies herself with is going to be a member of RAW, since no one in Smackdown has issue with us."

The room was silent for a moment as Barrett waited for someone to put two and two together, shaking his head in disappointment when no one filled in his thoughts for him.

"What do you suggest we do, then? I can tell you, she's not likely to stop," Husky said, shrugging his shoulders in a way that showed complete confusion.

Wade Barrett chuckled a little in his throat and then picked up the picture of Heidi and Cena. "We get someone she doesn't expect to take her _out. _This is your fault, Husky," Barrett continued, slamming his hands on the table in front of Husky and leaning in close. "She's _your_ sister. Its _your_ job to take her out."

He pulled away and straightened his shirt, slicking his hair back into place.

"Do it before tonight's match, and I'll consider this whole thing..." he paused, a look of mock musing on his face, as if searching for the right words, "water under the bridge." His eyes fell on Husky's again and he stared for a moment, daring his dog to bite back so that he could strike him down again. The fat fool was _weak..._

No one else said a word, the room was as tense as a coiled spring, and all eyes were on Husky, who remained silent.

"I'll take care of her, boss," he said. "Don't worry about that."

Once Wade had left the members of team Nexus to come up with a plan, the boss was already setting one in motion. Leave the eradication of Hellcat to her brother, whose gumption was lessening each day? Ha. Only a stupid git would put all his eggs in Husky's basket. No no, Wade Barrett was a refined man, a man of delicacy with a connoisseurs appreciation for a strategy.

He stormed to his private hotel room and shut the door with a childish slam. Instantly he fished into his pocket and brought out his cell phone, flipping it open to scan through his address book and then held it to his ear and waited for the call to connect.

"Hello?" he asked irritably, in a low voice. There was a pause and Barrett chuckled evilly – this was good news. "Excellent. See that you come at the perfect moment... I'm willing to wager that tonight will be the Hellcat's final performance."

He found her in the hotel lobby, making a personal phone call from one of the booths off to the side. She looked just how he remembered her, sitting with girlish confidence, twirling the cord around her finger as she talked to whoever...

_Mom, probably, _Husky thought. It had been a long time since he'd given_ her_ a thought, and probably longer since she'd given him one.

Husky sat in the lobby in street clothes, no sign of the black and yellow Nexus garments that he knew would only stir Heidi into a rage. This was a tactical meeting, after all and the only thing left to do was wait for his kid sister to finally get off the phone so he could 'chat' a bit of sense into her.

Heidi hung up the phone and pushed open the doors, looking left and right for anyone she might recognize. The hotel was neutral territory but there was no accounting for who she could run into. At this delicate stage in the process, Heidi was still the underdog by a hundred fold. She needed to watch her back and recruit more people to help her do so.

Dressed in simple jeans and a button up shirt, Heidi crossed the hotel lobby and did not notice the large man following her, dressed in a high school football sweater...

"HEY!" she cried as a faceless weirdo grabbed her by the wrist and started pulling her towards the hotel bar, a room lit mostly in blue and red that served overpriced drinks and snacks. Heidi struggled against the soft chest that she ran into but was soon put effortlessly into a hold that kept her both upright _and_ silent.

Growling, remembering this as one of the moves she had yet mastered, Heidi stopped her struggling and allowed herself to be led into the bar, knowing _precisely _who dared to grab her without permission.

"Husky," she breathed accusingly once he'd let her go and pushed her into a comfy velvet chair at a black table. The older brother took his seat across from her and stared with his dark, beady eyes for a moment, not knowing what to say.

"You need to go home," he said, shaking his head and looking at her. "This is getting out of control... You're not the only one who won't stop!"

"You want me to quit?" Heidi protested, shaking her head violently at the very idea of forfeit. And give up all she had already accomplished? Throw in the towel when the battle had just begun? "I'm here to _win. _I'm going home the next time you do, Husky, and I intend to make it home for the holidays," she stated defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest, her body set in pure obstinacy.

Husky pounded his fist on the table and tried to search his baby sister's face for any sign of rationale. There had to be some, showing up to meddle between Barrett and Sheamus' match was shockingly stupid, she had to know that, had to understand... But there was no understanding on Heidi's face.

"You'll never leave? Not even if I ask you as your brother?"

Heidi shook her head.

"Never. I'm dragging you back if I have to do it with my teeth!"

"Fine then, I won't look out for you any longer!" Husky bellowed strongly, leaning forward in his chair and boring his eyes into Heidi's. It was difficult to tell by the way they looked that they were related, but the matching set of grimaces told as much about their relation as their family tree. Neither was backing down, neither was going to submit to the other.

Heidi scoffed and turned her nose up at her brother.

"I don't need _you _to look after me," she huffed. She had no way of knowing that her brother had seen the picture of her and Cena and had just sat in a meeting with the Nexus discussing her extermination. Heidi had no idea that she needed her brother's help at all. Blissful in her ignorance, Heidi found her brother's request to be an attack on her moral code and took great offense. _"I'm_ here looking after_ you_, so don't get the roles mixed up, Husky."

With that reminder, Husky set his passive face onto his sister's and then shook his head in disappointment. His eyes were set on her in a strange way, looking right through her as if she wasn't there. Heidi's face went soft with hurt - she knew that look. It was the same look he'd given Lily the night they had broken up and she laughed and shook her head, looking away.

"Wow," was all she could say, her throat hitching a bit as she fought off the hurt Husky had intentionally caused.

Fed up, Husky threw his napkin onto the table and walked out of the bar with his hands up. He said nothing else, afforded her no more looks. He had washed his hands clean of her, that much was apparent.

When he left, Heidi stood up from her seat, recovering once he was good and gone and no longer looking at her like they weren't family.

"Yeah, yeah, just walk off like you always do, go and sulk, see if I care!" Heidi shouted after him, leaning over the table to throw her voice at her brother's back, hoping he heard every word. This was pathetic, what kind of grown man ran away from things so blindly that he crashed into the same thing and doesn't realize it? A new rage was building inside of her now, a thirst to know how he could possibly betray her so hurtfully.

Heidi had begun grumbling, flopping down into her chair when a waitress dressed in black tights, heels, and little else approached Heidi and leaned down so that the young girl could hear her voice.

"Excuse me but I'm going to need some identification," the waitress said apologetically, looking Heidi up and down with an expression of motherly disappointment. Clearly this kid was in the wrong place, she didn't belong, didn't look sexy or polished enough to enjoy a bar like this in a hotel like the one they were in.

Heidi patted her pockets but felt only the handful of change she'd cashed in at the front desk so that she could make her phone calls, and gave the waitress a broad but sheepish grin, laughing a bit.

"I didn't mean to wind up here anyway, I'll just be on my way now... " Heidi said, standing up from her chair so that she could exit the bar as hastily as she'd been pulled inside it.

Backing from the waitress, who thought Heidi acted rather guilty for being caught, Heidi was not watching where she was going and stepped on someone's shoe, someone who was standing very close behind her.

"It'th ok, she'th with me."

Swagger laid his big hand on Heidi's shoulder and smiled his winning American smile at the waitress, who took one look at the superstar's devilish grin and apologized immediately to Heidi. With a hand on her hip as the waitress went away, Hellcat Harris pushed his meaty paw off of her as if peeling a wet baby diaper from her hand. He looked much different in clothes, she was quick to notice, glad that he was no longer strutting around in his gaudy patriotic onesy and had opted for slacks and a button up.

"That'th funny," Swagger mused as he took the seat that Husky had occupied and sat in it, rubbing his hands up and down the arm rest as if to make himself at home. "You theem to have a track record for not giving me the gratitude I rightly detherve."

"Deserve?" Heidi laughed and then leaned close to him, emphasizing every word. "Don't be serious, Swagger, the only praise I can give you is that you finally took my advice about the stars on your butt," came her sarcastic reply, smiling too sweetly, so that her face was mocking. "Besides, I don't have time to waste on you, I have _bigger_ fish to fry." All kindness was wiped from her face as she righted herself and started to prowl out of the bar.

Jack Swagger's cocky grin faltered but he found it quickly and he turned his chair to watch her walk out, both intrigued and irate that she was impervious to his obvious American charm.

"Fine, jutht remember what I thaid about Wade Barrett," he shouted while looking down in his lap at his cell phone...

Heidi had hidden herself somewhere she could allow for the perfect arrival: under the stage. In the steel rafters that held up the ring, she crawled and tucked herself into a corner. With only the element of surprise on her side, Heidi knew she had to hide herself early so by the time she lights fell and the show got underway, there was already a crick in her back. She felt nervous, but excited. This was a night she could potentially win it all back, every opportunity was to be snatched and squeezed dry.

Heidi would waste nothing.

Lily Stark leaned into her microphone to administer a clever retort to something CM Punk had said, earning a smile from Lawler and a scowl from Cole.

"I don't care what they say, gentleman, Santino and Kozlov are a natural match!" she said adamantly with a flip of her hair, which was crimped for this evening, a nice backdrop for her spiral gold earrings. All of her outfit that was visible was a belted cream colored coat and a red-and-black plaid scarf tied delicately around her shapely neck.

"What did you think of that last match, Lily? Was Cena out of line for calling The Miz a despicable champion?" Jerry Lawler asked, looking down the table at his lovely costar, who leaned in towards her microphone. She did not give CM Punk much attention, no more or less than she would give any perfect stranger, treating him with civility.

"I think we all can agree that The Miz isn't the crowd's favorite champion, but you can't deny his ability to get what he wants. To call him despicable is just another way of letting him know what Cena and his fans think about his sneaky defeat of Randy Orton."

Michael Cole snorted derisively into the mic, and rolled his eyes, like a teenager might if you asked to read them a bedtime story.

"Please, The Miz won his title fair and square, lets not forget why he had the Money in the Bank to begin with. He's the most gotta-see WWE Champion, and there is no way around that," Cole finished with an annoying air of superiority.

CM Punk eyed them all and then added, rather immaturely, "Cena was out of line. That's no way to treat the champion."

The crowd was beginning to become restless as the night progressed, each passing match brought them closer to the finale, Wade Barrett versus the massive Sheamus in a challenge for the crown. If Wade Barrett could dethrone the King of the Ring then he would have an automatic ticket to the next King of the Ring showdown, and the rule of monarch sat well with the Englishman.

Amongst the other signs swimming through the crowd, Lily's eye caught one that read "HELLCAT!" and groaned. It had started already, just like she said it would. Lily looked around the arena, wondering what way Heidi was going to make her entrance, hoping to god it wasn't as dramatic as her last one.

Jerry Lawler noticed Lily's wandering eyes and brought her back to the show with a well placed question.

"We've got to talk about it guys, with the match between Barrett and Sheamus coming up, do you think we'll see the Hellcat again?" Lawler asked.

CM Punk sneered at the idea and shrugged a shoulder. "No one has seen or heard from her since her first match. If she were serious about trying to take out the Nexus then she would have made herself known before tonight. She probably ran home to her family," he joked, laughing into the microphone.

The chortle by Michael Cole was not missed by Lily and she took a deep, steadying breath before replying.

"Jerry, I can _promise_ you that Hellcat is going to show up tonight..."

Just then, the lights went dim and Barrett's theme song began to play as the giant Brit came out from backstage to a chorus of boos and cheers alike. He leisurely made his way to the ring, sauntering in a way that looked too practiced to be suave. When he was in the ring, he brought his lips to the microphone and to administer a scathing insult to Sheamus when the lights dimmed again in interruption and out walked Sheamus, having timed his entrance to purposely cut off anything Barrett had to say.

Sheamus came out to his Celtic song, wearing his crown and emerald cloak with the utmost pride on his knavish face, walking in even strides to the ring, where Wade Barrett watched him with great distaste. Sheamus, never one to be intimidated, stood so that he was almost bumping chests with Barrett, looking him dead in the eye with that impish blue twinkle.

"So, they call you a king," Barrett asked, gesturing towards Sheamus as if he were exhibit A and the audience was his jury. "But I know better. I know better," he said, shaking his finger to tell him he'd been very naughty. "I know that..."

"Oh can we git on with et?" Sheamus asked, interrupting his opponent a second time. "Tha King o'tha Ring is mine, Barrett. This match won't change that." His voice was a snarl but he was smirking, egging Wade Barrett on with his unmitigated gall.

"All right then, ring the bell!" Barrett challenged, yanking his black shirt off and throwing it to the ground. Both of them shoved their microphones to the referee and stood in their respective corners: Sheamus standing his ground and staring while Wade tilted his neck left and right to get ready.

The bell rang, and both of the WWE superstars rushed forward, gripping each other by the back of the neck. Sheamus yanked left and right and got an arm around Wade Barrett's back just enough to pull the greased-back Brit into a backbreaker that left him rolling on the floor in pain. Ruthlessly, Sheamus grabbed Wade's hair and pulled him to his feet, launching him into the ropes only to chest slam him onto the mat, the crowd going wild at their King.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt!" Lily said with a cringe as she watched Sheamus brogue-kick Barrett in the face. She was watching the two men with an intensity that could only have been described as awe. Heidi was going to get in the middle of that? She was going to _willingly_ insinuate herself between two men who could turn her into jelly if they both hugged her at the same time? Lily Stark hoped to god that Heidi had a plan, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the short Hellcat.

As Wade Barrett delivered a perfect diving elbow drop from the second rope to Sheamus' kidney, Lily got her answer and felt her body seize, gasping wide-eyed, a gesture that had all of the commentators looking where she was looking.

There, from under the ring, emerged Heidi. She crawled out rather unceremoniously and stood up, bending backwards with her hands above her butt to work out the _awful_ kink in her back.

"SOMEONE STOP HER!" CM Punk exclaimed, his hand on his head with a finger directed right at Heidi, who was jumping on the balls of her feet, looking up at the stage where Sheamus was dragging Wade around in a headlock that looked most uncomfortable.

No one else had noticed her, all eyes were glued on the ring to see if Sheamus would cling to his title. Heidi had come out directly in front of the commentator's table but ignored everyone except for the two gigantic men currently throwing each other around the ring.

"There she is, ladies and gentleman! Just like Ms. Stark said she would be, Hellcat Harris has emerged! And it appears that the rambunctious kid has every intention of entering this match here tonight!"

Heidi, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet, watching the match go on almost over her head, did not hear the commentators behind her. She hardly listened to the way the audience's cheers spiked and settled, and most certainly did not take any note of the referees. She had the ok from the GM and had done her homework: there were several more matches she could interrupt before she would be in breech of contract.

"Looks like she got a new look, the Hellcat is beginning to take herself more seriously! She even got some gloves," Lawler said, looking at the small girl. It was true, the only part of Heidi's original costume that remained was the hoodie with ears on it. She donned new white knee-high sneakers, a pair of knee pads, silver shorts (the gloves Swagger had given her), and a silver tank top under her hoodie.

Lily sighed and nodded, looking appreciatively at Hellcat's new look. "Yes, she must have consulted someone with fine taste," wearing a satisfied smirk as she complimented herself on national television.

As Heidi crossed the floor and started climbing up the corner post, the crowd, who had just watched Wade Barrett side-slam Sheamus onto his back and then stomp repeatedly on his head while grunting in his low baritone, went silent.. Then, as if they just noticed her, there was a communal gasp heard throughout the arena as the truth of what was about to happen settled over them all... When Heidi unzipped her hoodie and let it fall to the floor, the audience went _wild._

"What does this kid think she's doing?" Michael Cole asked, gesturing to where Heidi was climbing between the second and bottom ropes, barely touching them as she shimmied inside and then started to ascend the corner ropes.

Lily wished she had an answer, but replied, "Its the moment we've all been secretly waiting for! Hellcat in her first expected arrival!"

Sheamus was the first to notice Hellcat and he stopped immediately to stare in bewilderment at the small girl who was bouncing on the ropes with seeming effortlessness. Not expecting his opponent to stop so suddenly, Wade Barrett crashed into Sheamus, sending him flying into the ropes just beneath Heidi. Wobbling so that she had to crouch down and take a firm grip on the swaying ropes, Heidi glared at Barrett, who was approaching her with malice in his eyes.

"YOU!" he glared, seizing a handful of Heidi's shirt and yanking her roughly from the ropes. "I told you I'd make an exception for you, little girl, and now you're about to find out why that's a very bad thing!" Barrett shouted in his classy accent, right in the Heidi's face. He would make her pay, with every step and breath and bead of sweat, he would break her from her stupid delusions about taking Husky from his team.

Heidi struggled against Wade Barrett's superior grip fruitlessly, kicking and scratching as he turned a full circle, her feet flying off the ground due to centrifugal force. Barrett spun around a few more times and then finally released Heidi when he knew she was going to crash into Sheamus, who had struggled to his feet, quickly recovering from his time on the ropes.

Hellcat flew sideways towards Sheamus, her back hitting his chest to send them both hastily to the mat. The force of Wade's throw had Hellcat's eyes spinning and as she looked up she saw that Sheamus had rolled out of the ring and was wisely recovering, leaving the Hellcat alone in the ring with her number one enemy!

Standing up, Heidi shook her head, sending blonde hair waving around in her braid, a gesture which seemed to have Wade Barrett off guard.

"He clearly hoped to be done with her after _that_ move. Guess again, Barrett!" Lawler cheered with a bit of a fist pump.

"You've got me all wrong, Barrett," Hellcat taunted, ducking effortlessly under a clothesline arm that was intended for her neck, the force of which sent Barrett slamming into the ropes chest first. She then propelled herself at the ropes opposite of the British jerk and gained momentum, kicking off into the air so that she flew, feet first, like a javelin towards Wade Barrett's face.

When the loud CRACK sounded, the audience whooped and hollered, caring not a whim for the ungraceful way that Heidi fell down Barrett's freakishly large body to land, spread eagle, on the mat at his feet.

Shaking his head like he was trying to swat a fly, Wade Barrett stomped a foot onto Hellcat's stomach, sending all of Heidi's limbs up into the air as her lungs emptied themselves quickly through her long groan. Heidi was struggling to gasp enough air to claw towards consciousness when she remembered a thing or two...

Wade, who was standing with his arms folded over his chest, apparently bored but amused at how easily he dispatched a little girl, was caught wholly off guard as Heidi Hellcat Harris grabbed his ankle in an expert lock and then rolled her body to take his leg out from underneath him.

The maneuver worked and Wade came crashing down, the weight and momentum of his falling leg landing right on Hellcat's side, forcing the air out of her again. She did not relent though, and kept her death grip on his ankle, finding the leg bar that Husky had taught her all those years ago and wrapping Wade up in it completely, her eyes clenched in the anticipation of sweet victory...

But Sheamus had gotten back into the ring! With a running start, the red-headed superstar sent a flying knee into Heidi's ribs and knocked her off of Wade Barrett. Heidi gasped in pain and flew back, under the ropes, landing in front of the commentator's table on her back.

"And this is the kind of think you expect to see from Sheamus. He knows how to bide his time and then strike at the right moment," CM Punk said with a casual gesture towards the stage, looking over the desk to see if Heidi was still moving.

"Can she recover from such a stunning blow?" Lawler asked, standing up and gesturing down to Heidi, who was slowly rolling onto her hands and knees, looking like she'd just been worked over by ten men instead of two. Her breathing was ragged and she held onto her sides, watching the ring again as Sheamus and Wade Barrett continued their brawl now that they considered her harmless.

"I think you'll all be surprised at what Heidi can withstand, Husky has been training her and wrestling with her for years. She might not be WWE caliber yet but she is holding her own without complaint against two massive opponents!" Lily said, standing up so that Hellcat could hear her. Being unable to cheer for Heidi at the risk of her contract, Lily did everything _but_ wave a sign with her friends' name on it.

Heidi got slowly to her knees, the crowd long having forgotten her. She was nothing to them, just a blip on the radar screen of greater entertainment and more excitement. In fact, no one was going to come help her, that she could tell deep down inside, and Hellcat slowly prowled up the steel stairs to the ring, her eyes deadset on Sheamus...

Wade Barrett was making quick business of Sheamus, who was still suffering an injured ribcage from his first trip out of the ring that night, throwing him around the mat with a strangely controlled rage. Heidi watched the two of them, silent in the corner, waiting for her moment to strike. Clearly, stomping in the middle of them was only going to ally them against her, which left her in _serious_ need of Cena, who she didn't want to have to call unless she absolutely needed it. Her pride was on the line, her family was always on the line, and this was no time for failure!

When Barrett scooped Sheamus off his feet and pile-drived him into the mat, the Brit could literally smell victory. The King of the Ring was going to be his, and dispatching the brat was easier than he'd thought. Sheamus was leaning against the ropes, showing no sign of forfeit on his impish face, though he was sweating hard and favoring one side.

The two fought a bit longer, and finally, when Sheamus was delivered a kick to the chin that sent him spiralling towards the floor, Heidi saw her chance. On his way down, Sheamus, the big stupid oaf, had gotten tangled in the ropes and was hanging there, almost perfectly...

Running into the ring to ooohs and ahhhhs all around, the feisty Hellcat bounced off one set of ropes, ran across the stage to bounce off the others and ran, full speed, towards where Sheamus hung. She grabbed the ropes just the way that Mysterio had taught her and swung herself over the top set, driving both knees into Sheamus' face from outside the ring as she came back down.

Sheamus hung there and did nothing. The King was defeated.

A referee came into the ring screaming, "DISQUALIFIED!" He waved his arms and pushed Barrett into a corner so that he could look at the commentators to see what they had to say.

After a moment Lily's voice called out in a thundering cheer, "Wade Barrett is disqualified from this match due to interference from the Hellcat!"

Heidi shot to her feet and raised both arms above her head, howling towards the sky as if the full moon were about to slake her bloodlust. She jumped up and down, finally climbing on the ropes and beating her chest like a proper champion. She'd done what she set out to do, and more than that, she'd sent a message to Wade Barrett about just the kind of wrestler Hellcat intended to be: a smart one.

Barrett looked as if he were about to murder Heidi, who had stolen any chance he had that moment of becoming a proper king but he kept himself in check, nodding with his lips pressed in a tight, crooked line.

"This is what its come to? Fighting little girls who can't seem to let go of the past?" Wade chuckled hollowly and shook his head, rubbing his fingers over his temples. "You cost me the crown, pussy cat!" he said, standing over her like some sort of English vulture. "You're about to see what happens to people who doubt my cunning! Who doubt my absolute reign over the Nexus!"

Wade Barrett then looked up and nodded, stepping away from Heidi and slipping between the ropes to watch from the floor.

The lights went out...

"What is this?" Lily asked confusedly, looking from the dark figures of Barrett and Hellcat in the ring over to her colleagues to see if they had any explanation for what was going on.

Heidi narrowed her eyes at Wade, trying to see him in the dark when, from overhead, the speakers played out a loud, familiar voice.

"I have a greivanthe with the Hellcat!"


	6. Climbing the Banana Tree

The lights came up and Jack Swagger swept out from backstage to a wave of boos, standing up the ramp from the ring with his eagle behind him, dressed in his red, white, and blue onesy. "On Your Knees" was playing and he strutted cockily with his blue eyes deadset on Heidi as he swaggered down the ramp.

"OH, ladies and gentlemen, Jack Swagger from Smackdown is making himself known on RAW tonight! He's got a problem with Hellcat? When did those two meet?" Lawler asked, watching the scene unfold with excitement. Lily wondered the same thing herself and eyed Swagger like he was some sort of common criminal trying to rob her surrogate sister.

Barrett, who was grinning at this point, walked up to Swagger, the two of them standing close. For a moment they just stared and then, to Hellcat's dismay, the two men _shook hands._

They had made a deal? Heidi's mind swam as she watched two of her enemies collaborate against her, Wade Barrett clapping a hand on Jack Swagger's back as the All-American American hoisted his monstrous bulk into the ring, his no-neck body causing the mat to sink as he got closer to the Hellcat. Glaring up at him, Heidi crossed her arms over her chest and planted her feet.

"What is this?" Lily asked, standing up from her seat as she watched Jack Swagger approach Hellcat in what appeared to be a prearranged fight against the Hellcat's knowledge! "This is unreal! Can you believe it? Jack Swagger is challenging Hellcat here tonight, apparently after some deal struck with Wade Barrett of the Nexus? Ooh, that is low," Lily said contemptuously, sitting roughly back down in her chair.

Michael Cole was standing and clapping, CM Punk was watching with a superior look on his face.

"I don't know why you're surprised at this, Lily, Wade Barrett is not a man to cross," Michael Cole said as he sat gently down in his seat, adjusting his tie haughtily.

Heidi's few fans were booing for her, but nearly the entire arena booed as they watched the 6'5, 260 pound man with complete loathing.

"YOU MADE A DEAL WITH HIM?" she asked, irate, her little fists shaking at her side as she hollered up at him.

"Yeah, I did, I made a deal and I tried to warn you but you wouldn't lithen to me. Wouldn't lithen to the two time FtheeW champion tho there wath nothing left to do. You need to be taught thome rethpect, Hellcat!" Swagger shouted down at her, sneering with that look on his face that asked you to tear it off with your nails.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Jack Swagger doesn't have a match to call! The former one was ruled a disqualification thanks to an appearance from the Hellcat, which she was given permission to do!" Lily protested strongly, slamming her fist down on the table in front of her, where she had already seen her friend thrown towards by a man twice her size. "Wade Barrett has the whole Nexus and is now recruiting new allies? COME ON, REF! Put a stop to this!" Lily shrieked in an angry, hollow voice that demanded everyone listen. Her chest was heaving, her eyes boring holes into Jack Swagger's skull...

DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO

The audience was insane as they hear the noise that heralded a message from the anonymous RAW GM, people cheering and whistling as they jumped up and down, waiting for the message.

Slumping in relief, Lily touched her fingers to her eyes and practically melted into her chair. The GM would be fair, would be reasonable. Then again, Heidi _had_ challenged everyone who stood against her... this was an unfortunate side effect apparently.

"May I have your attention, please," Michael Cole said, standing and walking to the podium, watching Swagger and Hellcat exchange hateful looks. Clicking open the message, Michael Cole read it aloud:

"It appears, Hellcat, that you have made some rather intimidating enemies in the short time you've been here, and now it appears that Smackdown is involved in a RAW affair. Swagger, you wish to fight the Hellcat but have no match to call, so I shall offer both of you a deal. A match between the two of you will commence immediately after this message is read. Jack Swagger, if you win then you can feel free to interrupt the Hellcat during any of her matches. And Hellcat, if you win, Jack Swagger is forced to ally himself with you."

Grinning, Heidi started rubbing her hands together, feeling the gloves that she was going to use to tear Swagger apart limb from limb.

"So if I win, he's got to do anything I say? He's on my side for good, non-negotiable?" Heidi asked, looking over to Michael Cole excitedly. The thought of making Swagger follow orders was decadent and she indulged, imagining him fighting the larger opponents for her, allowing her to focus her energies on Wade Barrett.

She glanced down at Barrett as he leaned on the ramp, just outside of the main ring, her look calculating as she considered the offer. Her eyes drifted back up to Swagger, appraising him as her eyes ran up and down, her arms folded over her chest.

"Fine, I guess he'll do. Ring the bell!" she said, crouching low with her hands up like claws.

Swagger laughed sarcastically and shoved his microphone to the referee, planting his feet in the middle of the ring as Heidi held her ground a few feet away. She was in his shadow, literally – the lights above her only served to silhouette Jack Swagger's freakish bulk but she kept her eyes forward, locked on where she thought his belly-button would be.

_Lesson one: don't let your eyes give away your next move, _ she remembered Husky telling her all those years ago in the backyard. She could use her peripheral vision for someone like Swagger since he wasn't likely ever to be out of it.

The bell rang and Jack Swagger brought his knee up suddenly, eye-level with Heidi, and then kicked out. His foot connected with the side of her head and Heidi went down to the mat instantly, as if her whole body had gone limp.

The audience gasped, many of them standing from their seats to see if Hellcat was all right. It was as if they'd been reminded that she was not here for their entertainment, Hellcat had her own agenda.

Lily Stark nearly felt her heart stop, her hand flying to where her heart was hammering and pushing against it hard. Heidi was ok, she was ok, she was going to get up.

Jack Swagger had a blank expression on his face, eyeing Hellcat with curiosity as she struggled onto her knees, her eyes rolling around in her head like a hamster wheel. Had he actually just kicked a small girl in the head? If the fight was this easy then why hadn't Wade Barrett done it himself, or didn't he want to dirty his hands?

Looking over to Wade was the exact opportunity that Heidi needed in order to make her climb to the top. She levelled her eyes on Jack Swagger, caught in a moment of what looked to be painful contemplation with his eyes distracted and on Barrett...

"LOOK AT THE HELLCAT!" Lily exclaimed, jumping up as she saw the shift in Heidi's gaze. There was a grin on the blonde young woman's face, almost feral, earning her namesake for the thoughts that were clear upon her face. She'd seen an opening, she was going to exploit it.

Making no noise, Hellcat crouched as low as she could and then sprung straight up, her arms outstretched towards his neck. Swagger turned his head just in time to see Hellcat leaping at him, her claw-like fingers itching towards his throat and that look in her eyes that promised him that the fight was not over. Did his size do him no favors with this stupid runt?

Being the seasoned wrestler he was, Swagger brought an arm across his face and caught both her wrists in one of his hands, holding them over his head so that she hung from her wrists. Grunting, Hellcat got her feet underneath her and started to kick at his face, balancing on his sternum every other kick.

"OH, she is full of fire, that one! Look at the Hellcat doing what could turn into a great move for her, Lily! You certainly must be impressed to know this little spitfire!" Lawler said, watching as Swagger held her wrists away from his body and then let her drop.

Lily Stark too was absolutely hooked on the match, her cheeks reddening for having misjudged her friend. "Yes Jerry, she's always been good at reminding us just what she's made of," she praised, starting to relax in her chair and watch the match more objectively.

CM Punk was even shrugging his shoulders without much poor input for the Hellcat as he watched her.

Hellcat did not get to her feet once she was on the ground, and merely scooted right next to Swagger's foot. Grabbing onto his calf, Hellcat gripped as tightly as she could and then, amazingly, started to stand up.

His foot rose slowly at first, everyone unable to believe that Hellcat was moving Jack Swagger, even the All-American American was thrown for a loop as the persistent girl below him. Her face was strained, but once she was squatting, holding his leg against her body with all her might, Hellcat took a deep breath and heaved.

Jack Swagger was stunned stupid as he felt himself falling backwards, trying to get his other foot underneath him but failing. He fell backwards, watching Hellcat grow taller and taller as he headed towards the mat with a loud CRACK.

"OH MY GOD!" CM Punk shouted, for the first time appearing impressed since he'd seen Hellcat, his eyes wide with a grin on his face.

"Hellcat just THREW Jack Swagger in this unexpected rumble for the ruler on RAW here tonight! She is showing great tenacity, taking her hits and then coming back every time with _incredible_ moves like the one we just saw there. Can you tell she comes from wrestling family?" Lawler asked, shaking his head with pure delight, a grin on his face as he beheld the Hellcat in all her silver glory.

Swagger kicked his foot and easily took Hellcat to her back, falling with a thud onto her butt. He needed to win this, had to show her all the reasons why _he_ should be ordering _her_ around. Deep inside he regarded her as no threat, Hellcat was just a tough name to hide a devilish little girl behind. What could she really do, knock him over?

Roaring, Jack stood up and marched over to Hellcat and leaning over her, reaching for her arms.

"Thay goodbye!" he shouted down at her. Backing up a few steps, Swagger ran at Hellcat's body, stepping over her to bounce off the second set of ropes for his corner slingshot splash, the audience booing as they watched the massive blonde American send his bulk down onto the Hellcat's side.

Heidi let out a sharp yelp, clearly hurt by the move, but instead of recoiling the Hellcat growled and hooked her arm around his shoulder, clinging tightly so that when he stood up, he would take her with him.

Grunting at the inconvenience of her added weight, Swagger let himself fall again, slamming his full weight onto Hellcat, who's lungs were now completely empty of air.

She gasped as soon as she had the chance, sucking air in to her lungs like she'd been drowning. Glaring, she stomped her heel into his thigh, pushing his legs away from her so that he could kick her in the head again. She was down, losing the upper ground was forcing her to let the match continue longer than she would have liked. Swagger was a formidable opponent, one she hadn't had the pleasure of studying before her arrival.

If he won, she would have to watch her back for the rest of her time here. Trying to get Husky back would become more and more impossible and perhaps... she would fail.

Swagger held his thigh where she kicked it and backed up like the referee instructed him, pushing the All-American American with a hand in his chest. Hellcat stood up and lunged towards his knees, hooking an arm out so that she swept him off his feet and sent him sprawling face-first towards the ground, using her height to her benefit yet again.

"OH and down Swagger goes again tonight!" Lily chirped, happy as a bird to see the big, blonde dope flattened by someone half his size.

Jack Swagger shook his head as he lifted himself from the mat. _THAT_ was happening a bit too much; so the little brat learned about her center of gravity, did she?

Hellcat had scrambled and was trying to maneuver herself into position to deliver a rolling cross armbreaker, her knee over his shoulder so that she could swing and hopefully drag him to the ground, using all her weight to threaten his arm.

However, once her leg was in place, Swagger stood up suddenly, taking Heidi with him on his shoulders.

"HEY!" she shouted angrily down at him, adjusting herself quickly so that she kept her balance, sitting on his shoulders the way a younger sibling might with an older one.

Swagger, slapped at her knees but Hellcat was two steps ahead.

Her knees came crushing around his neck in a powerful grip, locking her ankles as she squeezed tighter. Hellcat held onto his hair as she tightened her hold on her opponent's neck.

"What is this, the Hellcat has him in a hold that Jack Swagger can't get out of!" Jerry announced, watching excitedly. The former World Heavyweight Champion was beginning to look very red, and the Hellcat nobody was starting to gain more and more confidence.

"She's starting to take him out, ladies and gentlemen! We may see history tonight! Is the Hellcat going to bring Jack Swagger to his knees and gain an ally for herself or will the ruthless Swagger come back and start the beginning of a war on her?" Lily asked dramatically, looking on while she held a pencil so tightly in her hands that it snapped into three pieces.

Jack Swagger was in trouble and he knew it. This hold had a name, he was pretty sure he knew it at once point but the lack of blood flowing to his brain had rendered him little more than a blonde sack of pennies. Hellcat had executed the move flawlessly, leaving him no time to react, just time to fall to his knees and then onto his back as blackness closed in.

Hellcat wavered as Swagger dropped to his knees, her thighs still clasped in a vice around his neck. When Swagger fell back, Hellcat heaved herself out from underneath him and flopped onto his chest. Hooking the leg as the crowd's cheers rent the air, Hellcat laughed in her victory as the referee slapped once, twice, and then a third time.

"THE HELLCAT HAS DONE IT TONIGHT! What an amazing performance for the end of our show!" Lily cried enthusiastically while the referee held up Heidi's wrist to indicate that she was the winner. Wade Barrett was seen walking backstage after the end of the fight, apparently swearing and muttering to himself with his back to his fallen American sod.

He leaned against the hallway in the darkness, running his fingers through his oily hair, listening to the pathetic John Cena loving flag wavers who were also apparently rooting for Hellcat.

It was no matter though, he assured himself with a sigh. The Nexus were never going to be broken up. If he had to throw everyone at her at once, the Hellcat would fall. Just like Cena, just like the sorry blokes in the NXT, Wade Barrett would take her _out._


	7. Reporting for Duty

HI! I have written some more! I promise that this story is NOT going anywhere, I'm just experiencing some internet issues for the month of February so updates may be staggered, but there will be some.

Thank you to EVERYONE who has read and reviewed and added this story to their favorites. It makes my dorky little heart go "OMGYAY." Just like that ^^

FANART! :O These are all done by my incredibly gifted cousin who is my biggest fan (and I dare any of you to outdo her).

Heidi Harris - .com/?qh=§ion;=&global=1&q=heidi+harris#/d37201b

Heidi and Swagger - .com/?qh=§ion;=&global=1&q=heidi+harris#/d371zfp

**You get to meet a new character this chapter! Yay, right?**

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Lily stood in the midst of the shuffling crowd, looking around anxiously for any sign of the Hellcat. The show had been over for half an hour already and there was no sign of Heidi anywhere. Lily, knowing the wrestlers like she did, was concerned. She wouldn't put it past Wade or King Sheamus to try something underhanded to get even. Neither took losing very lightly.

Heidi was making bigger waves than she realized.

As Lily continued her search of the crowd, Heidi was busily making her way through it, bumping and moving with the flow to join the stream of people headed outside. She figured that the best place to hide a book was in a library and she had gotten clothes for this exact occurrence. Dressed in simple denim jeans and a black hoodie that she kept doggedly around her face with her hair tucked inside, she was just another fan in the throng.

She kept her head down, shoulders hunched, eyes on the ground. She could slip out unnoticed...she was still a nobody...

"THERE SHE IS!"

Heidi kept her head down and eyes forward, wedging her way through bodies using her elbows. The exclamation made her heart thump but she was not a creature of fear. She was a Hellcat, not a timid rabbit and she would not run at the mere hint of trouble! They could be talking about anyone, a child lost from her mother, a girlfriend who got lost going to the concession stand...

Lily's breath caught in her chest as she spun around, her shiny hair flying as she turned to see the source of the voice. There was a moment of complete panic where the hairs on the back of her neck stood erect and a twist in her gut forced her hand to cover her stomach, as if she were about to be sick. That voice, she knew that voice...

Still trying to claw her way out of the crowd, Heidi let out a sharp yelp as someone placed a heavy hand on her shoulder and stopped her entirely. However, Heidi was not bound by the same rules as the WWE superstars - she was an intruder and therefore the rules for dealing with fans or reporters were immaterial to her.

"GIT YER HANDS OFFA ME OR YOU'LL DIE REGRETTING IT!" Heidi snapped in thunderous vehemence, clamping a hand over the large one on her shoulder and pulling sharply forward. The young woman was not concerned about the foot traffic around her, nor was she any longer paranoid about her cover being blown since apparently she'd already been spotted. There was only one thing on her mind, and that was to deal with the fool who'd decided to stand in her way.

Heidi had sworn on her first appearance in the ring that anyone who tried to stop her would be considered an enemy and taken _down._

Her strong little hands seized the wrist and yanked forward, throwing her shoulder into the move so that the body behind her flew feet-over-head. The sound of the body hitting the floor was muffled by the stirring murmurs of onlookers who watched the insignificant girl in the black hoodie toss a middle-aged man over her shoulder and onto his back. Some of them let out gasps as they watched the scene unfold, though no one got involved.

The look on Lily's face when she found Heidi was difficult to decipher since it was a torrent of two rather strong emotions: amusement and horror. So _he_ had found her. Lily had long thought him to be out of the business but there he was, ready to ruin something else. And there was no mistaking Heidi either now that Lily was forced to notice her; her body language would always be remarkably unique_._

Staring back up into the face of a freckled and affronted looking young woman, the man who had tried to stop her lay motionless, as if he'd cracked his back and was in need of medical attention. There was a wide, white look in his eyes for a moment and he seemed to stare beyond Heidi, who was watching with her arms over her chest, equipped with her signature glower.

"Whadda you want?" she asked forcibly, her voice practically a bark, caring not a whim for the pain she might have caused him.

Around them, the few remaining fans who were passing through stopped to watch, amazed that they had just seen Hellcat fight and now encountered her fighting some more. A handful of people (mostly young girls) were pleased at having seen the Hellcat and were watching with smiles and bated breath. This was potentially the birth of a new superstar, even if the Hellcat _was _illegal!

Lily started walking slowly towards the scene, her heels muffled in the echoing sounds of feet shuffling and whispers. Almost all eyes were on the Hellcat and her unfortunate pursuer, who looked as if he were still quite stunned from her brutish reaction.

The man shook his head as his eyes started to focus again and laughed, a high-pitched wail of a sound that cut through the noise of the emptying arena like a gunshot.

"Ooh, isn't that just the Hellcat we've all grown to love!" he said in rhetorical excitement, smoothing his hands over his suit, which looked freshly starched but had become rumpled from his introduction to the floor.

Heidi arched a brow suspiciously.

"Excuse me?" she asked, leaning over him to look down into his face. His face was upside-down to her since she'd thrown him on his back but he seemed rather put-together from what Heidi could tell. He was definitely not a wrestler judging by his slight physique and the shrillness of his voice (unless, Heidi thought, he was related to Dolph Ziggler...).

The man quickly gathered himself and got to his feet, where he stood a good head taller than Heidi. His hair was immaculately slicked back in a way that looked polished instead of greasy, and there were flecks of salt and pepper in the otherwise black hair that made him seem distinguished. He kept a perfectly trimmed moustache along with a triangle's point of black hair on the tip of his chin.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Percy Lancaster and I'm with the local paper here in _beautiful_ Phoenix," he greeted with an exaggerated tone as he came across his favorite words, like his name, and 'beautiful.' His voice was airy and gay, which Heidi was beginning to think he was when she saw the lavender hue of his tie.

"Nice to meet you," she replied flatly out of courtesy only. Her face and tone were still deadset against him, though she was impressed that he'd taken his fall to the floor so well. Given his suit, she'd taken him for a pansy.

"_Well?"_ he asked, as if the question were obvious, looking down at her with twinkling eyes.

Heidi arched her brow higher and leaned forward, inspecting him shrewdly.

"Well _what?"_

Percy laughed airily again and reached inside his suit coat to pull out a pad of paper.

"Well, what's your story, tell me about how the Hellcat came to be..."

Lily was practically shoving people by the time she saw Percival Lancaster get to his feet, knowing she had only a few seconds before she could save Heidi from almost certain shame. That man had a tongue as quick as light and an undeniable charm that she herself had fallen victim to.

"The Hellcat will not be answering any more questions tonight!" Lily announced as she pushed past the last obstacle between herself and Heidi, a large man eating a cheese-covered pretzel that smeared on his cheek as the huffy commentator brushed by.

Heidi looked up, her hands casually in her pockets with the hood drooping down the back of her head. Instead of angry, Heidi appeared completely confident in the situation. There was no point in hiding anymore, she figured, especially not when a reporter wanted an interview!

"What's the matter Lily?" Heidi asked confusedly, looking over to her friend with a curious expression.

As soon as Percy saw Lily, his demeanor shifted and he chuckled softly to himself.

"Of course, Ms. Stark, I had anticipated meeting you again around these halls," he commented coolly, looking to Lily with a smile that seemed like it knew far too much.

Lily looked at him but did not glare. She gave him no ammunition against her that he could wield like a skilled swordsman. After one of his articles had been published, Lily had been painted to look like a mad woman who had followed her boyfriend into the WWE in a futile attempt to win him back. Of course, all this had been before Lily or Husky had become familiar names with the fanbase, but the article was still out there in cyberspace, posted on Percy's personal website.

"What's going on?" Heidi asked, looking from Percy to Lily, expecting an answer. The two of them obviously knew each other, and in all of Heidi's time with Lily she had _never_ seen her act so abruptly towards someone.

Lily walked up to Heidi and put an arm around her, like a mother bird tucking a baby under her wing. For a stretched moment, Lily and Percy simply looked at each other. Neither was glaring nor making threatening gestures, but it was a showdown nevertheless.

"Percy is a reporter," Lily began.

"I know, he said he wants to interview me for the local paper, isn't that cool?" Heidi asked, putting her arm around Lily's trim waist, like they were posing for a photograph.

Lily's eyes cut immediately to Percy, who whistled lowly, his face one of a trapped man. He put away his pad and paper.

"_Local newspaper?"_ Lily echoed, staring at the polished gentleman more sternly. "Don't believe a _word_ he says, Heidi. Percy works for a _gossip_ magazine, and the articles he can't publish there he posts on his website."

Heidi let her arm drop from around Lily and she took a menacing step forward, which Percy mirror by stepping backwards. Her fist was clenched like she was about ready to clean his clock at any second.

"I assure you, Hellcat, your article is for the fans that are clammoring to know more!" he said, straightening his tie nervously, tiny beads of sweat peppering his brow.

In the time that it took Lily to out Percy for what he was, quite the gathering of people had congregated to watch the spectacle. Seeing two familiar faces from the show was enough for them, and since they'd stuck around to try and get a glimpse of a superstar they would take what they could get. It wasn't John Cena but the fans weren't too choosey. Perhaps 20 or more people were standing in a staggered circle about 10 feet away from where Lily and Heidi faced off to the sharp-dressed-man.

Someone shouted, "HELLCAT!" and the few fans started to clap and laugh, looking at Heidi like she was about to do something great, something like what they had seen that night when she toppled Jack Swagger or delivered a pair of knees-to-the-face of King Sheamus.

Percy laughed somewhat uncomfortably, high and strained, and he closed his eyes as he placed one hand on his chest.

"I think the Hellcat can make her own decisions, Ms. Stark. Please, if you wish to get your name circulating in the papers, give me a call," he suggested in a calm voice, holding out his business card to Heidi between two fingers.

Heidi looked at the card as if Percy Lancaster were trying to offer her crack-cocaine, eyeing him like a dog.

Just then, the crowd around Heidi, Lily, and Percy began to grow louder until finally someone screamed in glee and all attention was stolen from the trio. The noise grew louder and louder, many booing but a few were clapping and shuffling to get closer to whoever had just emerged.

Heidi looked over her shoulder and groaned.

Jack Swagger had come out from the locker rooms. He was cleaned and looked sharp in a pair of black slacks and a blue striped dress-shirt. There was not a trace of a smile on his face as he walked through the crowd like Moses parting the Red Sea. His eyes were glued upon Heidi though he sauntered towards her at a leisurely pace, surely trying to make a dramatic entrance.

Percy twittered a little at the sight of Jack Swagger and put a hand on his chin as he watched, clearly interested in what sort of delicious drama he could write about after the All-American American confronted the girl who fought for his favor.

Lily, who was already worked into somewhat of a lather after dealing with Percy and his lying ways, was not about to abide Swagger for one millisecond longer than she needed to. There was no reason for him to be close to them at all, and she was almost positive that he didn't want to discuss with Heidi ways to take out Wade Barrett.

"Swagger, you take _one more step_ and I'll tell Percy where your room is at the hotel!" she threatened with all seriousness, though her might was eclipsed by the beauty of her face, which made it rather impossible to look intimidating.

"Oh my, this is getting good," Percy squealed to himself as he whipped out his steno pad and clicked his pen once, the black tip pressed to the paper in desperate anticipation for some newsworthy action.

Jack stopped at about 5 feet from Heidi and Lily and turned his head to look at the taller, feminine commentator as she regarded him. His face was completely devoid of any emotion as he looked at her – it was the same face he wore when the fans booed him or when he was insulted in the ring. It was the face of someone who was forced to endure something he loathed.

Percy was in his element and was already furiously scribbling.

"So you two are to ally yourselves now, correct?" he asked, glancing from his pad of paper to look Heidi and Swagger in the eye before returning to the article he was no doubt already planning to write.

"What do you want, Swagger?" Heidi asked with a hand on her hip. Having _him_ on her side was hardly what she considered to be a success but it was better than nothing. She hated to admit it, but the deck was stacked against her and she hadn't made things easier on herself with her big mouth and her boisterous ways. Sheamus was now likely to be her enemy – adding that to the Nexus and Wade Barrett gave her 7 opponents. Rey Mysterio wasn't going to come to her aid, and John Cena had only said he would watch her back.

Jack Swagger was her only true ally, a fact that made her lip curl.

Blue eyes stared hard down at her the way they probably had at every textbook and word problem he'd ever seen. He still didn't smile but he also was not attacking, nor did he make any indication that he intended to. He stood rigidly, like a soldier reporting for duty to an officer he did not respect but still had to serve anyway.

To Heidi, when she noticed his behavior, everything else around her faded away. There were more people standing around now that one of the most hated superstars was around and the security guards had come to form a blockade between the fans and Swagger, pushing the fans back towards the exit. But she did not hear the onlookers, nor did she squint as the flashes from photography came from all angles.

Jack Swagger was actually holding up his part of the deal. Heidi was floored.

With a mouth hanging open wide, Heidi marched towards Swagger and stopped when she was directly in front of him. Her head barely made it to his armpit but, as she had shown in the ring, size meant nothing to Heidi, who herself thought to be much larger than life.

Heidi studied him hard, examining his face for any sign of betrayal or trickery.

Under the Hellcat's careful scrutiny, Swagger felt rather like a cloudy diamond being inspected by a master jeweller. He could not and would not go against the GM though, not after he had just invited Smackdown into the Hellcat's feud with Wade Barrett and the Nexus. Still, he kept his gaze impartial and frozen, neither smiling nor frowning.

"How can you be trusted?" she asked at last, putting her hands on her hips.

Swagger swallowed once, slowly, and thought about his words for a moment before trying to assemble them into a coherent sentence; like he was playing with magnetic cut-out words on a refrigerator in his skull. He had expected many things from Hellcat after the match: pomposity, arrogance, or bossing him around immediately. But she did none of those things.

"I follow the GM'th ruleth, Hellcat," he replied simply in a voice much like a soldier's: impartial and emotionless.

Lily watched, rather stunned at the turn of events. She and Percy were both spectators to this strange interaction, as were the remaining fans who hadn't shown any signs of being crazy and were now only being _watched_ by the guards instead of shoved by them.

Again, Heidi was surprised. This was not the sort of behavior she'd expected from the All-American American. She scowled for a moment at her predicament. She was in need of help and her only reliable source was Jack Swagger?

Stomping her foot, Heidi growled loudly so that it echoed around the ceiling for a moment and then released a heavy sigh.

With a finger pointed directly at Swagger, she piped up to him hotly.

"Why can't you just make it easy to hate you and be a _jerk_ all the time?" Her voice was loud but had lost an edge of harshness to it and she threw her arms up in defeat as she stomped away from Lily, Percy, and Swagger.

Just before she was out of the arena, Heidi stopped and turned back around, pointing a finger at Jack Swagger as he stood rooted to the spot.

"I'LL SEE YOU IN THE GYM FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!"


	8. Man Panties

"_Heidi Harris, known to the fans of the WWE as the new-come crusader Hellcat, is a complicated and upsetting girl. She stormed into the arena mere weeks ago and already has made a splash worthy of my pen and paper. Just the other night I ran into her after the historical show where she fought not only once, but twice, and succeeded in both of her matches, disqualifying Wade Barrett and strangling Jack Swagger._

_If her ringside manner startles you then you won't be disappointed to discover that Heidi is every bit as brusque as she appears on television. The list of her offences in her short career interrupting matches for RAW includes assaulting an immigrant with a shoe, declaring a personal war, kneeing a fallen man in the face, and suffocating the life out of a well-known patriot._

_Meeting her in person was, as you might imagine, terrifying. She was all claws and teeth, snarling at me like a feral animal starved of nourishment. Very few of her words were spoken, most having been forced through clenched fangs, which looked to be sharpened to enhance her image as a 'hellcat.' _

_Her short stature does nothing but make it possible for her to insinuate herself wherever she feels she deserves to be. Though I have heard it rumored that Ms. Harris is indeed in her early 20's I witnessed nothing of her behavior that made me believe any of the hype. Perhaps her young age is the reason for her madness, for no one can spend much time in her presence and not conclude that Heidi is entirely mad. _

_But is she bad for the sport? Many people are talking about her, more than she seems to realize since she was last seen trying to escape the crowd by becoming part of it, dressed like the unibomber (as if anything could look more suspect). When she was confronted by an innocent man who was simply trying to ask for her autograph, Hellcat grabbed him and threw him to the floor with the same mercilessness that the WWE fans have come to associate with King Sheamus or Drew McIntyre, not with the little cat-girl._

_In the world of journalism, we frown upon generalized statements and rumors that lead people away from the truth that we reporters commit to exposing. With Hellcat, however, so little is known that we are forced to speculate since she adamantly refuses to give an interview, even after several civil attempts on my part. With her conviction to remain an enigma, Hellcat maintains a certain advantage over the truth, but there is one great truth that even she is unable to deny, though she struggles against it with all her might:_

_Hellcat is in love with Jack Swagger._

_I know, I know, it sounds like madness! But didn't I already tell you that the Hellcat was mad? You may be reading this, narrowing your eyes in suspicion at what I have just told you, and you would be right to, for who could believe such nonsense? Why, Swagger interrupted Hellcat on this past week's RAW and challenged her to a duel, threatening to teach her a lesson about respect! How could the Hellcat, who so vehemently opposed the mighty All-American American, possibly have found herself in love with Swagger after only a few days of his loyalty?_

_But one must remind themselves at all times that what you see on television can be misleading. America watched as Hellcat won against Jack Swagger, but America was not watching when I encountered Heidi Harris and Jack Swagger after that fateful match. The strain in their eyes made the room thick and heavy with obvious tension, so much so that being near them was to wade into turbulent waters. I heard first count the raw emotion behind Hellcat's voice as she spoke to the object of her passion, trapping him in her gaze that begged him never to betray her. It was apparent to me that this unresolved romantic tension had been brewing for some time and is beginning to get potent!_

_Swagger, who has always been popular with the ladies thanks to his notable American suave, appeared less than moved by the Hellcat's heartfelt performance. His chiseled face did not once crack from the mask of stoicism he wore to hide his true feelings, which are anyone's guess._

_Could it be that Jack Swagger and Hellcat are the new "it" couple in WWE, or is Hellcat alone in her utter devotion? Is Hellcat going to accomplish her impossible mission to get her brother back? Will she care about her brother with a broken heart? Will she forget him in the throes of romantic bliss? It seems there are few things we can say about the Hellcat with absolute certainty but I hope you take it from me, who has experienced her savagery firsthand, that she is a dangerous and foolish girl who should be treated like the feral animal she portends to be."_

Husky slumped in the overstuffed armchair and let the newspaper article lie face-up on his lap. The hotel room was deserted but there were six dirty plates around the table and a room service bill that was about a mile long from the breakfast Husky had shared with his Nexus teammates.

David Otunga had brought the article to the table, reading it aloud with great flair as black-shirted Nexus members all laughed heartily at Heidi's expense. Of course, Husky had managed to crack enough grins and chortles to pass for being sincerely amused, but he watched the glee on his teammates faces with something like disdain growing in his belly.

Wade had nearly blown his oily top when he read the article, and had been the last one to laugh. He reminded them that this was betrayal on Swagger's part and that neither he nor Heidi were to be shown any mercy.

Husky had to laugh, bitterly. It wasn't as if Wade had been playing nice to begin with.

His concern for Heidi had been minimal since he knew better than anyone how tough she was but he was forced to start thinking and remembering things that he thought he'd put behind him. He was deeply contemplative these days, though he kept enough of his regular demeanor to keep Wade from breathing down his neck at every turn.

Already, Husky had been punished for Heidi's impromptu rescue mission. Shortly after his face had healed from where Wade Barrett had brutally slammed him into the mat, Wade Barrett had instructed David Otunga and Michael McGilicutty to tag team against Husky in a fight that was surely to punish him for not having taken Heidi out. At this point, she was no longer considered Husky's responsibility, and he still had the black eye to prove it.

With a glance over at the table, Husky was forced to think about what Heidi had said to him: he was trying to replace family? A few glasses stood with orange juice still in them but most of the plates had been picked over of the good items, leaving only yellow yolk smears and crumbs of toast. There was no denying that the sight of dirty dishes around the table reminded Husky of family meals at home and he cursed his sister for a moment, as if admitting to himself that she'd made a valid point.

He sighed and relaxed entirely into the chair, facing it towards the balcony so that the late morning sun shone through and bathed him in the light. As a Florida boy he liked the heat, he could handle it and almost anything else like a professional, but this was going to get ugly, he could feel it in his gut. Heidi already had won Swagger and with the open invitation for Smackdown to become involved, the whole ordeal was rapidly progressing.

He picked up the paper and held it in front of his face to block the sun so that he could read it over again. The large tank of a man was forced to laugh as he read the absurdities that a mister Percival Lancaster had published about his younger sister. Heidi was many things, and he had often called her crazy, but she was hardly dangerous. Mad, reckless, and brusque? Well, those were pretty spot on, but Husky was the first to admit that the article was hardly a truthful portrayal of Heidi.

Husky knew better.

He also knew that poor press was still press and that thrusting yourself into the limelight was going to ruffle some feathers. Heidi had a lot to learn about showbiz, if only she'd listen to him. Of course, now that they were pitted against one another in what was rapidly forming into an all-out war, Husky knew that trying to teach Heidi anything would only catch him flack from both sides.

He was stuck.

Never, _ever,_ had Husky been a shy man though, nor a man afraid to take his beating. He stood from the chair and folded the newspaper into quarters, tucking it into his back pocket so that it stuck out over his plain black shirt.

With a last, lingering look at the sight of the breakfast dishes on the table, Husky grabbed his leather jacket and headed out the door. Heidi in love with Jack Swagger? That was preposterous.

Looking over her shoulder, left and then right, Lily assured that there was no one else in the hallway before standing on her tip-toes and peeking in the doorway window to the gym where Heidi and Swagger had been practicing. The leggy brunette had dropped Heidi off before the sun had broken the horizon, and it was well past lunch now.

With a glance at her watch, Lily verified that the pair had been weight training or sparring or whatever wrestlers did in practice for over _six_ hours and she was curious as to how they were doing. She half expected to see bloodshed and broken bodies inside, knowing both Jack and Heidi, but as the gym came into view she giggled at the sight that met her.

Swagger, who seemed less stiff than last night, was busily doing pushups with Heidi sitting on his back, munching on the bagel sandwich that Lily had made her that morning. Remarkably, Heidi was listening to whatever Jack was saying, nodding her head or shaking it zealously.

Clutched tightly in Lily's bejewelled hand was Percy's article, rolled into a tight circle that she kept worrying as she watched the unlikely duo continue their practice. Heidi didn't read the paper and so there was no way for her to have known that the Tuesday morning press had published the steaming rubbish that Percy had written.

Someone had to tell her.

That job was Lily's, as much as she wished it wasn't.

Heidi and Swagger were both doing pushups now, long, slow, painful ones that Lily could see were starting to tire her brazen blonde friend. There was an expression on her face of fatigue though she fought through it without a word, her eyes glaring holes into the floor beneath her. Swagger, on the other hand, appeared to have an inexhaustible reservoir of strength, since his arms did not so much as tremble as he led Heidi through another set of ten.

Sighing, Lily dropped from her heels and leaned her head against the heavy metal door, tightening her hand around the rolled-up newspaper in her hand. Damn that Percy, she'd make him pay if it was the last thing she did...

Lily turned around to lean her back against the door just in time to see Husky Harris round the corner towards the gym. Lily gulped but remained calm, though she felt much like a rabbit trapped by a puma. Her heart raced and instantly her hands became sweaty – he reminded her instantly of high school and good times long since forgotten. By all rights, she should have spat in his eye and stomped away but she wasn't there for him. She was there for Heidi, her friend who needed her, and so Lily stood her ground, shakily, but without intent to move.

Husky stopped as if he'd suddenly walked into a tar-pit. His feet refused to obey him and just walk forward so he stared like a guppy. There she was, the girl he'd dumped too long ago. Lily. She had once been _his_ Lily, but now she was free and unattached, and most definitely not his. Always had she been lovely, but after spending almost all of his waking hours in the presence of men wearing spandex man-panties, she looked even more stunning. Husky had always admired that about her, how she could look like a movie star even in his letterman jacket and a pair of jeans, and today was no exception, he noted. Jeans and a blue striped shirt... Cute.

A grumbling sound came from his throat as he tried to clear it, and he took a steady step forward, though slower than usual. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and laughed a bit.

"Long time no see," he said lamely, looking from the floor to her face to test how she would react to him.

Lily nodded and released some of the tension that had pulled her shoulders up around her neck like a turtle. At least he wasn't going to be unpleasant, even if he was an incorrigible asshat.

His nervous laugh came out and then disintegrated into a low whistle as he swung his arms back and forth for a moment, snapping his fingers.

"This is awkward... " he said lamely, throwing out his attempts to tip-toe around the white elephant in the room and just come out and say something about it. Their history wasn't too terrible – he had broken up with her to pursue a career in professional wrestling, his lifelong dream. Surely she understood what that meant to him...

Lily simply nodded, her chandelier earrings clattering at the movement.

"Yeah, it is."

Husky eyed the paper in Lily's hand and experienced a minor epiphany – so Lily was here trying to protect Heidi? That made sense. Those two had always been close.

"Look Husky, I don't know what you're here for, but... " Lily's words cut off as she watched Husky reach behind him and pull out a newspaper from his back pocket. She laughed and relaxed entirely against the gym door, where behind her Swagger and Heidi were still practicing. And still not in love.

"It looks like we're both here to do the same thing, then," he said with a spark in his eye that reminded Lily of why she'd dated him in the first place. There was something welcoming and warm about his smile, and despite his tank of a body, Lily had always known about the Ferrari engine that powered him. Husky had been a good young man in their days together.

"You're here about the article, then?" she asked.

Husky nodded.

"Yeah, I got it this morning and decided to look for her." He purposely avoided telling her that a member of the Nexus had shown him the paper, and that he had listened to it so many times from the different teammates of his that he practically knew it by heart.

Lily sighed, fiddling with the newspaper in her hand, unable to unroll it and read it again before it was absolutely paramount.

"Percy has a reputation in this business for putting his own spin on things," Husky reminded with a poignant look to Lily, obviously remembering the article that had been posed about the two of them. "No one who matters will believe a word of this garbage."

"But their are a thousand times more people who don't matter reading this and getting the wrong idea! Its _just_ like him to start these rumors, just to stir the pot for no reason, no reason at all!" She paused from her rant, looking to Husky with a steadfast expression as she assembled her soapbox beneath her. Pushing off the door, she started to aimlessly meander in a circle, every so often taking a few steps as she thought and formed a counterattack. "And he posted it on his website too! There are already over 90,000 hits on that post alone, not to _mention_ how many people will read this article since he sells his stuff to papers all over the country...!"

"Lily! Lily!" Husky shouted over his ex-girlfriend's rising frenzy, stepping forward and putting his beefy hands on her delicate shoulders, looking down at her earnestly.

At the unexpected touch, Lily's mouth stopped moving and hung open for a moment before she realized what she was doing, and then closed it as tightly as a child yanking up the blinds.

Husky grinned.

"Its all right, Heidi's made of rawhide, she'll recover..."

Lily suddenly went as cold as ice and she turned her cheek to Husky, looking to the side. Her lips were thin and tight and she shook her head at Husky. With a shrug she had rolled his hands from her shoulders and she backed up against the door, leaning against it with her arms neatly tucked over her chest.

"That's just like you, Husky," she said bitterly, shaking her head so that her ponytail swished. Her eyes remained on the floor but her words were strong. "Just because she'll be ok in the end doesn't mean that you can disregard that she was hurt in the first place."

Husky's breath stuttered out of him and he floundered for words but none came to him, leaving him stunned silent.

He stood in front of her, only a few feet away, and therefore could see directly into the gym where Heidi and Swagger were still hounding away with whatever outrageous regimen Swagger followed. Husky was not looking into the window, though, he was watching Lily as she deliberately avoided his gaze, punishing him by withholding kindness.

"You should go. Heidi and Swagger should be done any minute now and I think we both know that this news would be easier to swallow coming from me," Lily reasoned, looking up to Husky at last to drive her point home.

"Wait, you mean she's in there?" Husky asked, his concentration back on track as he looked up and peered into the window on the door to see if he could see any bodies moving around, or being flung around, or lying in a bloody heap.

"Yes, but they're in the middle – HEY!"

But it was too late. Husky had gotten what he came for and scooted Lily to the side with a gentle-but-steady hand on her arm. He hadn't hunted Heidi all day to find her and leave her to Lily. No, there were a few things he wanted to clear up before he went back to Wade Barrett and the Nexus, who could _never_ know about this meeting. And Swagger was in there – Husky wasn't fond of the All-American American in the first place but now he was a bonafide enemy...

As he burst into the room, Husky stopped and looked around, spotting the ying and yang blonde partners over in the corner. His long oily hair hung into his eyes, which narrowed as he got closer. So the two of them _were_ closer than he thought. There they were training together, working on moves that Husky knew she would use against Wade Barrett, his boss.

Neither Heidi nor Jack had noticed Husky's entrance – it wasn't unusual for other athletes to come in and use the gym. After all, it was public domain and all WWE superstars had the right to workout and train in the facilities provided so Husky just watched for a while, waiting to see if he got any answers before he charged in.

Heidi fell onto the ground again, this time on her shoulder, and she growled furiously, slamming her hand onto the mat.

Jack Swagger looked frustrated too. He'd shown her this move time and time again, so many times that he had lost count and was now becoming unforgiving of her constant mistakes.

His massive chest was heaving and glistening with sweat, and, for once, unadorned by the onesy that Heidi had made such ruthless fun of that he had changed into just a pair of exercise shorts. His face was red with both anger and exertion and he shouted down at her, his blonde hair dripping with perspiration that flung around as if he were a wet dog.

"You have to push yourthelf up uthing your upper body thtrength! FOCUTH, HELLCAT!" This was _not_ his idea of a good time. Divulging his moves to her felt like sabotage, for he knew they wouldn't be allies forever. Nevertheless, he performed his duties, even if they were begrudging. He had tried to tucker her out but the runt showed no sign of stopping, even after she had been thrown across the room, landed on her head, and taken another corner slingshot splash.

Heidi groaned and hopped to her feet, looking like she'd just been worked over by a platoon of irate gorillas. Her entire body ached but she couldn't give Jack the satisfaction of knowing that she wasn't able to keep up with him. _He_ had been practicing just as long as she had and there was still a pep to his step: Heidi had no idea how out of shape she was. It didn't occur to her to ask for a break or that exercising for countless hours was something you ramped up to.

No. Heidi had a cause where time was of the essence. She would get Husky back if it she had to hold herself together with duct tape and popsicle sticks.

Swagger gave them both a small breather, one that they took full advantage of by catching their breath and wiping their brows. With a sideways glance, he looked at his unwanted ally and mentally shook his head. She was never going to get it at this rate – how the hell had she beaten him again?

After several deep breaths, Heidi nodded her head and got into position, kneeling on the floor as if she'd just been knocked to the ground. Jack Swagger took her cue and rushed her from the back, giving her little time to react. However, his arrogantly motivational speech had inspired Heidi to show him up and she managed to squat in time. Just as he was moving into position, Heidi leaned forward and pushed off of the mat with her hands. Then, with a kick of her legs, she was supporting herself in a handstand position. Using what strength she had left in her tired, wobbly arms, Heidi bent her elbows and then pushed with all her might, keeping her feet apart so that they could move into place.

To her astounded delight, Heidi felt her feet smack around his head, locking into place by his ears, a collision that caused the enormous American to wince and grunt in pain. His arms came to wrap around her torso but she elbowed them sharply away so that she could, with a great heave, perform a situp. This put her face-to-face with Swagger, who was starting to show signs of exhaustion but did not relent. Holding onto his shoulder, Heidi brought her skull crashing into his and felt his knees buckle, just like he said they would.

Swagger's eyes rolled once and he fell to his knees. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, Swagger, who probably should have stopped the training session long ago, finally succumbed to fatigue and fell forward onto the mat, trapping Heidi in an uncomfortable position between his hulking frame and the mat.

There, he breathed heavily, eyes shut, ignoring Heidi's squirming protests and empty threats as he took a much needed break. The blow to his head was partially responsible but more than anything, he had reached his breaking point and was exhausted beyond belief.

Husky had seen all he needed to see by this point. There was no truth in the article as far as love was concerned but there was indeed a fire between the two that he could no longer stomach.

"HEY!" he shouted, stomping forward and making his presence known. Swagger, with his cheek pressed against the mat, a line of drool connecting his lips to the floor, opened one eye and looked up at Husky. Immediately, he found a second wind and sat up on his knees, letting Heidi scramble out from underneath him with a withering stare.

Heidi saw Husky and she smiled slowly until her face was bright enough to rival NYC from space.

"Husky!" she exclaimed, getting her disobedient feet beneath her by leaning on one knee and hauling herself up.

Husky, however, was no longer looking at Heidi. What he had seen of Swagger was enough to ruffle _any_ older brother's feathers and he was not about to let it slide.

Without preamble, Husky grabbed a meaty fistful of Swagger's sweaty blonde hair and yanked roughly to the side, sending him sprawling on his back. Then, taking a few steps back, Husky ran at Swagger and jumped over his body with his legs pulling up. Landing with his back on Jack Swagger's stomach, Husky executed his running senton to perfection and left Swagger without any strength left to fight back with.

Getting up, Husky looked furiously at Heidi, who stood there watching with indignation etched on every pore. Then he looked down at Swagger, who was holding his stomach and rolling back and forth. He was not getting up to fight back any time soon.

In a rage, Husky hollered down at him, his face feral, showing the similarities between him and his sister once again.

"You've always been a cocky lowlife, Swagger! Keep your filthy face and hands away from me, Wade Barrett, The Nexus, AND MY SISTER!"

He roared so frighteningly that Heidi was taken aback and it took her a moment to gather her thoughts before she turned her scorching eyes upon her older brother. In that moment her resolve was renewed as she looked at Husky; the reason she was there – her whole purpose in learning from Jack Swagger, the whole point of her place in the WWE to begin with.

"YOU CAME TO _THREATEN_ US?" she roared, almost hysterical with pain and hurt and fury. Tears of unknown origin came to the corners of her eyes but her voice did not crack, nor did she pause to wipe them away.

Husky was unaffected by her dramatic display.

"I came here to get the information I needed and I got _more_ than enough. I'll watch the two of you go down _TOGETHER!"_ he shouted. Reaching behind him, he pulled out the newspaper from his back pocket and threw it on the ground in front of Heidi.

Heidi's face became stone-like and she maintained a perfect stiff upper lip, despite the few tears that rolled down her face, trembling in what she hoped looked like ire.

"I will defeat every single one of you and your _PATHETIC_ teammates!" She countered, her voice as hollow as a fallen log. "If I have to fight you for the rest of my life then I'll _do it. _You'll give up before I will, Husky. I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT!"

She shouted her words at Husky's back as he walked away, disappearing out the gym door around Lily, who had come inside when she heard yelling.

Lily let out a worried squeal and ran inside, looking at Heidi who was kneeling on the floor and Swagger who had just rolled over onto his butt to sit Indian style with his arms holding his stomach, still clearly hurt by the running senton that Lily hadn't seen.

Dropping next to Heidi, Lily put a hand on her but was startled when Heidi ripped her shoulder away from the touch. For a moment her face was hurt, but then she looked closer and gasped. Heidi was crying. Her blonde hair was down, hiding her face but there was no mistaking the little teardrops that hit the mat beneath her.

Two little fists shook as they rested on her knees, trying her best not to show her weakness to Jack Swagger, or to Lily. However, after the long and agonizing workout, Heidi was only so strong and she broke for a moment, letting loose a tiny stocatto sob that racked her body. However, she rapidly gathered her composure and sniffled once and then was quiet again, though the tears continued to fall.

Lily, who hadn't seen everything but could piece together a logical conclusion well enough, sighed and wiped a few tears away of her own. She had never seen Heidi so broken, so much in woe and it weighed heavily on her heart. But she did not let Heidi see her pain for her, nor did she offer any more comfort. Heidi was too stubborn for her own good, and part of that meant refusing to let people near her when she needed them the most.

So, reluctantly, Lily stood up and exited the gym to get the car ready.

Jack Swagger, who had seen and heard everything and was in a state of shock, followed suit. He picked himself up and staggered to the locker room, leaving Hellcat to the solitude she clearly wanted.

Once she was alone, Heidi's damn burst and she let out a mournful wail, crumpling to the ground and slamming her fist against the mat as she let the sobs wash through her, sobering her to the reality of the situation. This was war. Husky was further gone than she thought and, for the first time since she had come to the WWE on the wings of fortune, Heidi "Hellcat" Harris had her first doubt.


	9. Alley Cat Strike

Hey! Time for another chapter. This one ranks as one of my ultimate favorites because it was so much fun to write. I hope you all enjoy, because I know I did!

Personal Thank Yous

**VIXXY VAMPIRE:** Glad you liked that chapter! I hope you like the rest of them and continue to read and review and feed my ego. :)

**emXatXtheXdisco:** Don't you worry, I will keep right on writing since I love this story as well. Thanks for taking the time to review - it really keeps the fire going!

**miserychick-17:** I love Husky as well, I think he's a fantastic wrestler with a lot of potential to be either a great face or a great heel. Thanks so much for reviewing and feeding the monster!

And to **hc2010**, **Khati**, **SBMFanatic**, **Twistergirl14**, and **Miz Orton**, thank you SO much for following the story and adding it to story alert and author alert. You guys all warm the cockles of my heart and I couldn't possibly be happier having people to read my things. :)

* * *

Noon the day after Heidi's meltdown found the Hellcat still in bed with the covers pulled up over her head. She was hiding, of course, from the world, but also from the sunshine that was quickly making the room warm and uncomfortable. Lily had pulled back the heavy curtains right before she left for a seminar that she was teaching on broadcast journalism, hoping that the glaring sun would rouse her morose friend from her pit of despair.

However, as Lily opened the door and tucked the key back into her purse, she sighed in defeat. There, on the cot that Lily had requested since the WWE still didn't know that Heidi was staying with their newest and most attractive commentator, was Heidi. It looked as if she hadn't moved much since Lily last saw her, all those hours ago, and the tall brunette shook her head as she let the door shut behind her.

Time for a less subtle approach.

Setting down her white leather purse on the neatly made bed, Lily walked around and stood in front of the cot. The lump that was Heidi moved just a little, but it was enough for Lily to suspect that she was awake underneath there and purposely avoiding her.

Lily grabbed the blue blanket and ripped it off of Heidi's body, an action to which she replied by curling into a tighter ball in the fetal position and grimacing at the sudden sunlight.

"Come on, get up," Lily urged in a casual voice as she started to fold the blanket in half, looking much like a housekeeper playing dress-up with the mistress's clothes since she was dressed in a cream colored power-suit.

Heidi groaned and curled up even smaller.

"No."

Sighing, Lily shook her head and opened the suitcase that Heidi had brought from home, which was full to the brim with new clothes that Lily had purchased for her. Almost mother-like, Lily began to pull out garments from the bag and arranged them flat on the bed, like she was preparing for the world's largest paper doll.

Heidi groaned again and rolled over, turning her back to her older, wiser friend.

"I'm not getting out of bed today so you can _forget_ it," she mumbled irritably.

Lily merely snickered at her friend's foul mood. She was always this way in the morning, grumpy and unpleasant, but Lily was used to it after so many sleepovers and just tutted at her cot-ridden pal.

The sunlight was now directly in Heidi's eyes so she threw her arm over her face, nestling her eyes and nose into the crook of her elbow to blot out the glare. Lily was crazy if she thought the she was going to get out of bed and face the world today. Didn't she deserve a day to mourn before she had to put on her big-girl pants again and face reality? The article, which should have been the worst of it, was eclipsed by the unfriendly scuffle with Husky and Heidi was feeling less than motivated.

Lily, who simply chuckled to herself at Heidi's behavior, returned from the bathroom with a glass of water in her hands. Standing over Heidi's cot she nudged her gingerly with the point of her cherry-red pumps.

"Heidi, you've got 10 seconds to start looking alive or I'll be _forced_ to splash you," she warned, dipping her fingers into the water and flicking them at Heidi's hidden face to let the girl know she was serious.

Another grunt sounded and Heidi smacked her lips as she tried to wet her mouth, which had become dry.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

"Come _on,_ just leave me alone today, _PLEASE. _I'm not going to the gym until the evening so I'm staying here until then!_"_

Even though Heidi could not see her, Lily shook her head.

"I'm sorry Heidi, I can't do that. You have an appointment today. Six, five, four, three – you know if you don't get up you're going to get soaked...!"

Heidi grumbled and called Lily on her bluff, impishly snuggling into her cot more, wiggling to find the most comfortable spot.

"Two,one," Lily finished hurriedly. Then, just as she foretold, Lily overturned the glass of water and sent the contents splashing down upon Heidi's covered face.

Spluttering, Heidi shook her head from side to side like a dog that had just emerged from a pool. Sitting up so that the water didn't run up her nose, Heidi wiped her hands over her face and coughed. Her face was carved out of irritable stone and she shot Lily a glare that would have crumpled lesser women.

Hiding the smile on her face by turning around, Lily vanished into the bathroom and then came back carrying a white, fluffy towel. She draped it neatly over Heidi's shoulder and patted her friend on her wet, blonde head.

"Now get dressed, you and I have an important engagement that is already paid for and cannot be broken."

Heidi looked up at her as she tousled her hair dry and dabbed the towel over her face and chest. She didn't look particularly excited about the news but her respect for her friend overrode her desire to smack her in the mouth. Begrudgingly, Heidi got to her feet and started to dress, pulling on a pair of bermuda shorts and a short-sleeved green plaid button-up.

"So where are we going?" Heidi asked after she brushed her teeth, wiping her hand over her mouth to clear any lingering traces of white, messy fluoride.

Lily, who was wielding a hair brush behind Heidi, just smiled and pushed on Heidi's shoulders so that she sat on the lidded toilet.

"You and I are going to have a fun day. I made arrangements first thing this morning for the two of us to check into a spa for the day," Lily explained as she brushed her friend's hair quickly but with great care. Given the state of _her_ hair today which was styled in an elaborate twist pinned with a golden feather clip, Lily was clearly the authority on hair and was not about to let Heidi out of the bathroom until she'd done something fantastic with it.

"A _spa?_ You've got to be kidding me! I should be practicing and ordering my blonde 'lover' around," she spat hotly, looking to the trashcan where the shredded tatters of the offending newspaper still lay like confetti.

"Honey, even John _Cena_ takes a day off. Don't worry about it, I promise you'll enjoy yourself and it will be good for your body to unwind." Lily assured as she started to French braid Heidi's wavy blonde locks.

Heidi sighed and leaned on the bathroom counter with her elbow, her chin in her hand as she sat and waited for Lily to be finished. Lily _did_ make a good point, it would be time well spent to get her mind off yesterday, but Heidi wasn't sure that a day alone soaking in mud with some upscale bimbo rubbing her feet was what she needed.

However, as Lily was tying off the end of Heidi's thick blonde plait, the girls' eyes met in the mirror and they forced smiles out of each other; the first Heidi had cracked since Husky had essentially told her that they were no longer family.

"All right, all right, you've convinced me," she forfeited with a stubborn grin.

"Ooooh, great!" Lily said, clapping a little and throwing her arms around Heidi in a brief but meaningful hug.

A few moments later they were piled into Lily's shiny green sedan and were trundling down the road of downtown Phoenix, passing palm trees and cacti as Lily took them to the spa. Lily had given Heidi control of the music so they were currently listening to a metal band that Lily secretly hoped would stop playing. But, if this was what it took to get Heidi out of her slump then Lily would suffer in silence, though she gripped the steering wheel tightly every time she heard the vocalist scream.

Heidi was quiet but glad that Lily had forced her to get out of bed. She felt a little better already, though every time she remembered Husky she felt her stomach twist into painful knots as she relived the feeling of betrayal over again.

Staring out the window as Phoenix passed her by, Heidi wondered where this spa was. They kept winding deeper and deeper into downtown until finally Lily parked the car in a garage and turned off the engine.

"Its across the street," she informed as she grabbed her purse and climbed out of the car. Heidi followed suit and walked around the back of the gleaming green car to stand next to Lily, who towered over her on an ordinary day, but in her cherry-red heels, Lily was positively in another layer of the stratosphere.

Lily led the way out of the garage, Heidi keeping up with quick strides. They looked like an odd pairing for certain, one of them dressed in country chic while the other was clearly a business woman, but the two had ever been polarities of each other, and _just_ what the other needed.

As Lily started walking towards a building with a huge red sign that read "LUCKY STRIKE," Heidi paused and looked up at it. This was most definitely not a spa...

"A bowling alley?" Heidi asked, her smile returning as she and Lily walked up to the doors. Cupping her hands around her eyes, Heidi peered into the black glass door and bounced from foot to foot in her excitement. "You mean we're not going to the spa?"

Lily laughed and opened the door.

"Of course not, don't you think I know you better than that?" she asked with mock hurt as she held open the door for Heidi.

Once inside, Heidi threw her arms around Lily's middle and hugged her tightly.

"Thanks."

As Lily went to check them in, Heidi looked around the place with a sense of awe that was all too apparent on her honest face. The place was dimly lit and swanky, like the club of bowling alleys with red and blue themed lightning all around. Underfoot the carpet was decorated with red and blue lines that mimicked the racing lights along the walls.

A string of women exited a restaurant to Heidi's left, all dressed as if they had just fallen out of a Playboy centerfold. Their dresses were short and shiny and their heels were at least six inches tall. Heidi shook her head in total confusion. How a person could keep their center of gravity while balancing on stilts was beyond her.

As Lily came back from the counter, she too took a look around and chuckled a little uncomfortably. She hadn't known that upscale bowling alleys existed, but she didn't want to bring up the matter so she ignored it and patted Heidi on the back. Handing Heidi her pair of size 7 bowling shoes, Lily grinned sheepishly, knowing that the both of them had just been thrown for a loop as they watched the gaggle of giggling bimbos follow each other like a line of ducks into the restroom.

Lily and Heidi exchanged looks and then the two of them broke into loud and rapturous laughter that caught the attention of more than a few passersby.

"Did you see the one on the end?" Heidi asked, wiping a tear from her eyes as she imitated the straggling blonde, shuffling like a gimping giraffe with her hands pulled up by her chest in a rather close mockery.

Lily nodded and walked them to their lane, setting down her white leather purse.

"I knew there was a dress code but I thought that was to keep riffraff _out_, not to let strippers _in!"_ she jested in good spirits, glad to see Heidi starting to loosen up a bit and see the smile she had missed while Heidi had been in mourning.

Heidi kicked off her fancy flip flops and yanked on the pair of socks Lily had brought for her, extracting them from her purse.

"So is that why you picked out my clothes this morning?" she asked slyly, looking over to Lily, who was neatly tying up the laces of her bowling shoes.

Lily blushed and smiled.

"Well I didn't want clothes to be an issue on our day off together!" Lily explained reasonably as she stood up and brushed her pants off. Heidi shoved her feet into the shoes without bothering to unlace them and was standing in no time, a snicker on her lips as she regarded Lily's attire.

"A pantsuit and bowling shoes... are you _sure_ there's a dress code?" she asked cheekily.

"Oh shut up, you," Lily replied, smacking her younger pal on the arm.

Heidi sat down at the screen to key in their names, pushing the same button a number of times as a variety of screens passed by her. She denied the offer for a complimentary beverage from the bar, the chance to enter a drawing for a new Prius, and seemingly countless other screens as she pushed "NEXT" over and over again. Finally, the familiar bowling screen came up on the overhead television and she began to type in their names.

"What do you want me to put in here for you?" she asked, looking over her shoulder as Lily poured herself a glass of sparkling water that was in a clear glass pitcher at their table.

"Hmm?" she asked, looking up at the enquiry. "Oh, Lily is fine."

"Right, 'Lady Godiva it is," Heidi chirped, keying in the letters as she spoke until she pressed enter.

Lily's mouth dropped for a moment and she put her hand on her hip in a jokingly indignant fashion.

"I'll have you know I _never _rode a horse naked through the streets!"

Heidi snorted.

"With _your_ hair, it wouldn't matter!"

The screen above was showing H-E-L-L-C-A when, from behind them, a man spoke up, standing on the stairs that led down to the bowling area.

"It cannot a-be! Look, look, it is the kitty cat girl!"

Standing there, with his tag-team partner, Vladimir Kozlov, was Santino Marella. Both men were dressed sharply in black button-up silk shirts and pressed black slacks, with Santino in front wearing a smile almost as striking as his uni-brow. Kozlov, who towered stoically from behind, looked at Heidi with a flat expression. His brooding eyes on her made her feel rather like an ant being glared at by a vulture.

"Look, look, look, look, its really her, Kozlov!" Santino chirped, hitting his partner's stomach with the back of his hand as he strutted excitedly forward, passing Lily without a glance to stand perilously close to Heidi. He obviously had no concept of personal space.

Heidi leaned away from him as he approached her, but quickly recognized who it was and loosed her stance a bit, though his mug in her face was less than appreciated.

"This _amazing!"_ he said, standing up straight once again and beaming down to Heidi with a wide smile cutting across his permanent 5 o'clock shadow. "What you thinks, Kozlov?" he asked with his hands on his hips in a dramatic gesture that fit him perfectly, looking like a flamboyant Roman statue.

Vladimir Kozlov stepped forward from the lush carpet to the hardwood floor of the bowling area and looked from Santino to Heidi to Lily, and then back to his tag-team partner.

"I think ve bowl now," he replied in his deep baritone, painted thick with his Russian accent. He then selected the heaviest ball from the rack and placed it on the ball return that Heidi and Lily had been preparing to use.

Heidi spoke up.

"Hey, its nice to meet you and all but this is _our_ lane and we didn't invite you to play," she pointed at with great pluck after she finished entering her name so that Hellcat and Lady Godiva were a team.

Kozlov ignored the protest and simply looked to Santino as he started to wipe his bowling ball down with a white rag that he pulled from his breast pocket.

Lily, who always thought it was amusing when Heidi put the wrestlers in their place, stifled a snort poorly and placed a pink ball into the ball return. Santino, however, was upset at the notion and motioned animatedly to the lane they were apparently all four going to share.

"I check for game time, they say the party is already here. I come here and see the kitty-cat and her pretty friend!" he said, waggling his eyebrow at Lily as he mentioned her beauty.

Heidi slammed her fist on the keypad so that the next person's name read "SZSAD" but was bumped over as Santino plopped next to her and started keying in his and Kozlov's names.

"Get off! This is supposed to be Lily and mine's lane!" Heidi protested, pushing against Santino's bulk to try and shove him off of the bench and onto his duff. However, the Italian, while silly, was still quite a boulder of a man and simply swatted idly at the kitty-cat's attempts to move him as he finished making the teams.

"There we goes! Tag-team against the kitty-cat and her pretty friend," he said, standing up to select his ball.

Lily let out a peal of laughter at the harrowing look Heidi fixed upon Santino's back while the obnoxious European squatted and started picking up each ball to see how they felt in his hands.

"Heidi, its all right, there must have been a mistake. I didn't think anyone else would be here so I just put us down as WWE because I wanted them to think we were big shots and get us lanes immediately... Santino and Kozlov must have thought the same thing. Its all a funny coincidence, if you think about it," she encouraged kindly, trying to keep Heidi from getting angry, a more exhausting task than the two grown men knew.

Having selected a bright kelly green ball, Santino put it in the return and then sat back down next to Heidi, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for an unexpected and crushing hug.

"Kitty-cat..."

"DON'T CALL ME KITTY-CAT EVER, _EVER_ AGAIN, _**GOT IT?"**_

Santino's eyes went wide at the explosion and he blinked a few times before taking a breath and pulling his hand back from around Heidi's shoulder.

"All right, all right!" he conceded with his hands held up. He looked to see what she had used as her name and then looked back to her with a more compliant smile. _"Hellcat,_ ladies first," he said, gesturing to the lane.

As Heidi picked out her ball, Santino pillowed his arm along the back of the bench and looked over his shoulder at Lily and Kozlov, who were sitting next to each other in silence. Holding his hand next to his mouth to try and keep his lips from being read, he whispered obviously to Kozlov: "Kitty-cat has fire, no?"

Kozlov looked up at his partner and cleared his throat after studying him for a moment.

"Probably vy they call her Hellcat."

Returning with a flaming red ball, Heidi waited for the machine to ready her pins, and then sent her first attempt down the lane. Being a poor bowler had never bothered Heidi, though she was glad that Lily hadn't asked for bumpers, even if they _did_ improve her game. The first shot knocked over only the outermost pin on one side, and her attempt after that landed in the gutter halfway down the lane.

Santino tutted and shook his head as Heidi took her seat next to him, refusing to let him overtake her throne. She bumped _him_ with her butt this time, forcing him to make room, an act to which he laughed and shook his head.

"I see you not so good at pin-ball," he said with a sorrowful tone, shaking his head as if he'd just learned she hated the Pope.

Heidi couldn't help but smirk and roll her eyes.

"Its called 'bowling,' Santino. _Bowling,"_ she articulated slowly, looking over and up at her Italian opponent's friendly face.

"What you mean? You have ball, you have pins, pin-ball, it makes a-perfects sense!"

Lily was up next and took her stance a little to the right of center, holding the pink ball in front of her like a champion. Then, with the grace that you'd expect from her, Lily sent the pink ball shooting down the lane in a perfect arc that smashed against the pins and knocked every last one of them down.

Wooting, Heidi pumped her fist in a circle in the air.

"Wahoo! On fire already, Lady Godiva!" she cheered as the strike showed up as an animated cartoon on the screen before showing the scores.

Santino looked shocked at the outward display of skill, glancing to Kozlov, who appeared, as usual, unfazed.

Smiling as she waited, Lily grabbed the other pink ball she had prepared for herself and took her stance again, like a monk centering his chi before he could receive enlightenment. Then she sent the ball down the aisle, knocking over the pins in another strike.

Heidi clapped this time, bumping Santino purposely with her bum as the screen boasted their score.

The Italian looked over at his young, blonde, American challenger, and nodded his head.

"I enjoy your spunk, Hellcat. But watch and learn how Santino plays pin-ball!" he said, walking theatrically with his ball to stand in the center lane. He too posed before he bowled, a ridiculous pose that made both Heidi and Lily start to laugh.

Santino turned around as the girls laughed at him and motioned to Kozlov.

"Partner? Ello? A little support here," he said before turning around and taking a deep breath, holding the ball like it was crystal and would divine the future.

Vladimir looked first to Lily, who was right next to him, startling her like a rabbit as he just stared for a moment. She was dwarfed by the Russian's immensity and looked up at him, her eyes like a deer in headlights. He then looked to Heidi, who was laughing still, clutching her sides as she watched Santino's silly posture as he sent his kelly green ball shooting right down the gutter.

"Ve haff funny partners," he commented at long last as he watched Heidi and Santino in front, playfully bickering about who was more terrible at "pin-ball." It was true, he and Lily had more in common than it seemed upon first glance. For Kozlov, Santino was a front man, a mouthpiece and comic to counter his grave personality. For Lily, Heidi was a gust of wind to mess up her perfect hair. Both of them felt like babysitters sometimes, a feeling validated as Santino pulled Heidi into a headlock and gave her a grinning noogie.

Lily smiled and chuckled, relaxing around the Russian man of few words. There was something both comforting and startling about him, but she found him to be quite harmless.

"You said it, Kozlov," she admitted with a smile, watching as Santino pinched Heidi's nose and then was slapped across the face. Both of the babysitters laughed, especially as the theatrical Italian held his hand to his cheek and scooted over the amount of space that Heidi apparently required of him.

Kozlov was up next, and, with his deadly stare, he sent his blue ball spinning down the lane to knock over half of the pins, which he cleaned up in his next try to earn a spare.

By the time the first game was over, the four of them were acting like old friends. The score was in Lily's favor since she bowled a strike more often than not, but as they sat around the table together, Heidi and Santino across from Lily and Kozlov, no one was paying attention to the score.

Between them was a spread of food that looked entirely too fancy to belong to a bowling alley, but then again, no ordinary bowling alley required a dress code. There was a pitcher of beer for the Tag-Team Champions and a pitcher of limeade for Heidi and Lily, around which two towering plates of nachos sat, being split four ways with no one caring who grabbed from what plate.

Santino rested his arm around the back of Heidi's chair and rubbed his stomach in satisfaction.

"So Hellcat, have you seen latest newspaper article about you?" he asked innocently, unaware that the subject had probably not be broached. He yelped as Lily kicked him under the table and crumpled a little at her stern look that begged him to think before he opened his mouth and stuck his foot right inside.

Heidi, however, was apparently over her slump and nodded her head as she chewed on a mouthful of delicious nachos.

"Yeah," she said finally, wiping her fingers on the napkin provided. "You don't believe any of it though, do you?" she asked calmly, though Lily could detect a tone of anxiety as she waited for the answer. Heidi had been hoping that the readers wouldn't believe the garbage that Percy had penned but she was so new that there was little to deter them from the lies.

Santino shook his head, and Kozlov simply furrowed his brow to indicate that he wasn't a believer either.

"No Hellcat. No-von could crush Jack like dat and loff him," Kozlov replied to a stunned table, uttering the longest sentence Heidi and Lily had ever heard from him. Lily smiled softly, extremely pleased with the Russian's response, and Heidi's face cracked into a grin that was so pure she put newborns to shame.

Santino also agreed and shook his head and his hands at the same time.

"Jack Swagger is a cheap chump," he said dismissively, stuffing another huge bite of nacho into his mouth and wiping his lips on his crumpled napkin.

Heidi breathed a sigh of relief and melted into her chair, feeling the weight of worry lift from her shoulders.

"But," Santino interjected. "You are too much a mystery. You've got to put up your face out there. Let the fans know who this Hellcat person is so they don't believe in everything they read in papers."

Lily looked up thoughtfully at the notion, and pointed to Santino with a bright face.

"You're right!" she exclaimed. "I don't know why I didn't think of it before... Santino, that's _brilliant!" _she praised.

Santino puffed up his chest and rubbed his nails on his black silk shirtfront, clearly inflated by the compliment.

Heidi looked confused and wiped some sour cream from the side of her mouth.

"What do you mean? Like an interview or something?"

Lily and Santino both nodded while Heidi and Kozlov focused on the nachos.

"Yes! We can schedule an interview with one of the magazines, or at least one of the other local papers until you..."

"But first we got to get you familiar with the peoples!" Santino interrupted in his excitement. "Make the fans love you. Your first match was trying something funny business – not so good for the crowd. You don't even have entrance musics or photos!" He explained, gesturing to Kozlov who nodded his head as he chewed, the crunch of chips the only noise he made.

Santino leaned back in his chair and assumed a poised look, as if he were giving very sage advice to a needy soul. With his arm around the back of Heidi's chair, he patted her back and hoped his learned advice would come in handy.

"After that, people get to know you, they bring their signs that say 'Hellcat, Hellcat!' and next thing you know – BAM! You got good interview and you can say 'shut up your face!' to peoples who don't like it!"

Kozlov nodded minutely and finished the plate between him and Santino, who was now picking from the nachos that Lily had abandoned to Heidi.

"Good plan," the Russian added.

Lily was busily flipping through her little black book, scribbling notes and checking phone numbers while Santino started the next game. The time passed much the way it had during the first game, with Kozlov and Lily sitting quietly to attend to their own business while Santino and Heidi treated the place like a playground. A waitress even asked them to tone it down after she caught Santino chasing Heidi around the ball return with his arms outstretched to get Heidi back for throwing a nacho at his head.

Lily sat and watched when she wasn't getting strikes, grinning and laughing as Santino and Heidi continued to play with each other like old friends. This was the spirit that Lily had hoped to save from the depths of depression, and she was glad to see that her friend was just as resilient as ever. She herself was still piecing together how she felt about her personal encounter with Husky and wanted to be able to talk to her friend about what had happened without risk of getting her head chewed off.

Four games of bowling later and the two teams were simply exhausted. Lily had never felt like more of a babysitter when she noticed the way Heidi and Santino seemed to have worn themselves out like children at play. Instead of trying to shove him off of the bench, Heidi was instead leaning against his arm with a tired look on her face while Santino leaned his head on hers, the both of them thoroughly tuckered.

Lily came back after returning the shoes and grabbed her purse, looking much more herself now that her cherry-red pumps were back in place.

Kozlov was standing stiffly next to the ball racks with his arms by his sides. Even though Lily stood on the second stair from the bottom, he still stood a hair taller than she did.

"What do you think, time to take the kids home?" she asked with a smile that he returned slightly.

"Da. He is cranky ven tired."

Lily laughed outright.

"Yeah, mine too," she said, stepping down to the level and crossing to the bench where the two were slumped against one another like kids in the backseat on a long road trip. She put her hand on Heidi's head and patted the thick braid on top of it to keep Heidi from slipping too far into sleep.

"C'mon kiddo, lets go back to the room," she said as Heidi and Santino both looked up suddenly with bleary eyes; two kids that had just been woken from naps to the promise of dessert with dinner.

"Who? What?" Santino asked as he looked around and oriented himself again. Seeing Kozlov, he remembered where he was and stood up, just as Heidi did. The two of them put on their shoes and then stood before one another.

"Its good to finally a-meet you, Hellcat," he said.

Heidi smiled.

"Thanks for the pin-ball," she replied with a wink. After a moment of smiles, Santino held his arms open for a hug, which Heidi was quick to deliver. She squeezed him tighter than he had expected and the air rushed from his lungs and forced his eyes to bug until she finally let him go.

"Oh ho ho, you a strong one, Hellcat. I'll be seeing _you_ in the arena," he said with a wink. As he passed Lily, he took her hand and kissed the back of it for longer than was necessary. "And I'll be hearing your melo-deeeeeus voice from the ring," he said with his typical Italian dramatic flare.

Then he stood by Kozlov and waved emphatically, as if he were saying goodbye to family members embarking on the Titanic.

"Arrivederci!" He called, and then he and Kozlov both turned around and started to exit.

Lily and Heidi walked somewhat slower than the energetic Santino, who seemed to have taken a great deal of energy from the little rest he'd gotten on the bench, for he was talking animatedly with his hands as he walked in front of the impassive Vladimir Kozlov.

Lily looked over to Heidi as they strolled amicably out of the Luck Strike Lanes and into the setting desert sun of Phoenix.

"So are you ok?" she asked, finally comfortable with the progress Heidi had made to start asking her about the important things.

Heidi nodded, finally feeling herself again. The pang of losing Husky all over again was still a fresh wound but she had finally stopped licking it and was beginning to leave it alone so that it could heal.

"Yeah," she said with a deep and relaxing inhale. "I am."


	10. Aliens Among Us

**VOLTENIA** 3 3 3 Biggest fan ever.

**VixVamp: **I can always count on you to review my chapters, a fact for which I adore you. ^^

Thanks again, fans. You all make this just a thousand times more fun to write. And its already FUN to write! More will come, PROMISE. Read, review, and follow the Hellcat's legacy!

* * *

"Pick up the pathe, Hellcat, come on, come on, come on!" Swagger shouted unrelentingly.

Heidi, who had stopped trying to gauge how far away from the hotel they were by the time they were out of the city limits, scowled at him with cheeks red from exertion. This death march was all part of the sadistic exercise regimen that Swagger had cooked up for her. He told her constantly that if she wanted to try and defeat a professional athlete, she needed to become one herself. And of course, he said it all in that patronizingly lofty tone that spurred her to remind him that she _had_ defeated a professional athlete and that's why he was there with her.

As punishment for missing her gym appointment thanks to bowling with Santino and Kozlov, Swagger was running her ragged. Literally. Both of them were dressed in sweats, wiping their brows in the uncomfortable dichotomy of boiling body temperature and chilly wind. Having left Phoenix far behind them, the frozen airs of Connecticut seemed much harsher in comparison. A puffing cloud of air followed Swagger and Hellcat everywhere, making them look, respectively, like a steam engine and the caboose of a derailed train.

"Up yours, Swagger," Heidi countered as she jumped over a pile of frozen snow. Her words were short and sharp. The cold air bit her throat every time she took a breath and her joints were freezing with every step she took, rocketing icy needles up her calves despite her sweats. People actually _lived_ this far north? WHY? As a Florida girl she could take all the heat and ocean humidity that the coast wanted to throw at her, but freezing her rear-end off in the frozen tundra was _un_acceptable.

She was bundled up like Nanook of the north in gloves and a hat with ear flaps and a bobbling top-poof, hating every moment of her torture, even if she knew, deep down, that it was for her own good.

Swagger, who was running backwards in front of Heidi with a megaphone and a silver whistle around his neck, was unfazed by the Hellcat's lack of enthusiasm. If anything, he thought it was amusing to prove to her just how much distance she had to make up. Of course, _he_ kept running without the slightest hint of slowing, propelling his freakish body backwards with a quickness altogether unexpected from a man his size. He was hardly dressed for the weather either, puffing along in front of her with a hat over his garish blonde hair, a sweatshirt, and the same pair of black gym shorts that he seemed to wear everywhere.

"Thtep it up, Hellcat!" He called, holding the megaphone to his mouth so that the haughty words were amplified into a haughty shriek in Heidi's face. Heidi wished he would slip and fall on his stupid head, running backwards as he was, but Jack appeared as surefooted as a mountain goat.

"I'm warning you _Thwagger...thcream_ at me one more time with that thing...and I'll _thtuff _it right up your...!"

Swagger smirked and dropped the megaphone, much to Heidi's relief. However, he simply lifted the silver whistle to his lips and blew, a long shrill cry that lasted ten seconds longer than it should have. The shriek was as biting and unwelcome as the northerly wind that blew at Heidi's cheeks, and she winced, clamping her hands over her ears.

"SWAGGER!" she angrily shouted, her face nearly cleaving in half as she opened her mouth wider than the weather permitted was wise. She was sure that her lips were chapped and that frostbite was going to render their work useless since no professional wrestler in history ever succeeded with missing toes.

To add insult to injury, Swagger blew the whistle again, smirking smugly as he watched the Hellcat's face contort with rage. Pushing her buttons was so easy.

"That's it, I'm done!" Heidi announced, slowing from a gallop to a trot and then idling altogether. A veritable fog of smoke surrounded her head as she caught her breath, holding her ribs where she had a painful stitch. She hastily wiped the sweat from her forehead before it froze and made her as numb-skulled as her unwanted instructor.

Jack took the time that Hellcat demanded for herself to do a little stretching, pulling one elbow behind his head as he breathed evenly. A few miles to start the day wasn't too much to ask, after all, and he was a champion of the highest prestige: he was in shape and was rubbing it in at every chance he got.

"Let'th run back now," he said, taking up position on the other side of Heidi, jogging in place with high knees and a smug grin, prepared to run backwards the same way he'd done all the way out of the city and into the suburbs.

Heidi was glad to hear that they were headed back towards somewhere they could continue practicing inside, with a heater, but wasn't about to let Swagger off the hook so easily.

"What do you care so much for anyway? Its not like we're friends, and I'm getting really sick of boot camp and protein shakes!" she complained, walking over to a heaping pile of snow and grabbing a handful of it, crafting it into a nice, round ball.

The smirk that hitched up the corner of Heidi's face was not missed by the Oklahoma native and he pointed a warning finger at her.

"I care becauth I play to _win,_ Hellcat. Bethideth, the leth I have to come thave you the better."

There was a brief moment when the clash of the egos was almost nuclear, the both of them staring the other down in a battle of wills. Heidi wasn't about to concede defeat by admitting that she needed Swagger's help, and Jack was miles away from even _thinking_ that any sliver of his being enjoyed her pluck.

"Well here's your reward!"

Drawing back her arm as if she were a world series winning pitcher, Heidi then rocketed it forward and sent the snowball flying right into Jack Swagger's face, where, upon impact, it burst.

A peal of laughter immediately followed and Heidi doubled over, slapping her knee as she fought to keep herself standing upright. She pointed and then threw her head back, barking with laughter up into the sky, tears almost rolling down her cheeks.

Swagger looked less than amused.

He stood there, stock still as if he'd just stepped into a tar-pit, his face scrunched as rivulets of water rolled down his cheeks and neck to soak his sweatshirt, which was already damp with sweat.

When he opened his eyes to look at his attacker, who was still guffawing like an old man at his own lousy joke, he ran his hand over his face to clear the snow and water. His whistle was wet, but his megaphone was still dry and he shook his head to fling water from it.

"Bad choithe, Hellcat!" he hollered.

Then, he started to run right at her.

"HEY!" Heidi yelped as she began to ran back towards the city, stumbling a bit as she tried to orchestrate her feet beneath her to move faster and out of the blonde bulldozer's way. Her heart was hammering and she pumped her legs faster as he chased her up the street.

"You were supposed to move out of the way! Or throw one back! JEEZ!" she called over her shoulder to see just how much distance there was between them. He was on her heels, his long legs carrying him twice the distance of one of her strides so she ran faster, feeling that spike of adrenaline course throughout her veins to give her that extra oomf she needed to avoid becoming a pavement patty.

Swagger lifted the megaphone.

"YOU THREW IT AT MY FATHE!"

Heidi ran, forcing her arms and legs to work faster than they had on the jog out. Swagger raced after her, staying just behind enough to propel her further forward. The wind felt twice as cold now that his face was wet and stinging with the air that rushed by him, but he kept hunting her down. He could no longer tell if this was part of his exercise program for the little brat or if he really wanted to push her head into a snowbank, but he ran at a pace he knew he could sustain for the rest of the trek, wondering if Hellcat could keep her lead on him.

"What, have you never been in a snowball fight before?" Heidi asked, narrowly missing a bicyclist who was crossing the street at the _wrong_ moment. She did a quick little pivot to prevent an almost certain collision, and then seemed to run in place while she tried to maintain her balance.

The run back passed much faster than the run out, with Heidi trying to calm Jack down as she picked the clearest paths so that she could try and keep her distance from the towering American's angry reach. Swagger kept yelling at her through the megaphone, arguing with her attempts to calm him down at top volume.

By the time they saw the arena where that night's show was to take place, Heidi and Swagger were both ready to sit down and let bygones be bygones. Heidi felt like she was going to die at any moment; that her heart was going to jack-hammer out of her chest and hitchhike to someone else's body who wouldn't treat it like an everlasting battery.

Heidi dared to slow when she saw a bench outside of the arena, near the parking lot, and hoped that Swagger wasn't going to punt her into next October. Her legs were on fire and she knew she needed a long stretch and perhaps even a bath to soothe the aches she knew she'd feel later.

Panting her last, Heidi bent at the waist and steadied herself with hands on her knees before collapsing onto the bench and sitting very still save for the rapid rise and fall of her chest.

Swagger, who had stopped shouting the last mile and focused on his footwork and breathing, came to a halt too and sat at the other end of the bench, leaning on his elbows as he caught his breath.

With eyes closed and mouth open, Heidi looked like she had fallen asleep or passed out, but the fog of frozen breath around her assured Jack that she was at least breathing.

He glanced over at her and rolled his eyes.

"Clothe your mouth, thtupid. You'll thtart to - " Swagger was cut off as Heidi began to cough, shielding her mouth as the dry, hacking cut through her lungs. "...Cough..." he finished.

Heidi finished and grimaced at him, tugging the strings of her hat to pull it tighter around her head.

"I can't wait to go back to Florida. Who wants to live this far north and go to a frozen beach?"

Swagger looked over, suddenly indignant.

"You had better not run off to Florida yet, Hellcat. People will thtart to think you're not taking thith theriouthly," he warned, the grit to his words conveying that it was indeed _he_ who questioned her resolve.

Heidi was shocked at his words and she simply gaped at him for a moment before shutting her mouth and pulling her scarf over her nose to warm her breath.

"I wasn't talking about bailing," she replied, somewhat grumpily. Like she needed a lecture from _Jack Swagger _about her resolution to get her brother back. "I just don't like this weather, ok?"

The pair was silent for a moment, both of them likely remembering the few days prior when they had encountered Husky. Ever since then, Jack had noticed how adrift Hellcat seemed to be: skipping gym appointments, snubbing his diet for her, and not giving her all during the sessions she managed to show up to. Granted, it had only been a few days, but Jack had no way of knowing how deeply Hellcat had been hurt by her brother's actions and was, therefore, unsympathetic.

He sniffed once and shrugged a shoulder, making him look even _more_ neckless.

"I dunno, winter ithn't all bad," he said, looking around to the white and silver everywhere, dusting the treetops and piled on top of cars that had obviously not been driven yet that morning. With his long arms, he dropped one over the side of the bench and discreetly palmed a huge fistful of snow, squeezing to form it into a retaliatory ball.

Heidi snorted, which led to another bout of coughing.

"Its pretty to look at in pictures, not so great to be chased for _miles_ in it!" she retorted, leaning towards Swagger as she berated him, the force of her words carrying her forward.

Jack simply smirked and shook his head. Then, he reached over and smushed the handful of snow onto Heidi's head, rubbing it in with something that looked like a genuine smile.

Heidi's mouth dropped open, wide enough to shove a toaster inside, and she dusted herself off hastily, flicking snow away from her windblown skin.

"SWAGGER!"

"I thought you wanted me to throw one back?" he countered, standing up to avoid the lunge Hellcat aimed at him. She stomped her foot like an impatient donkey and looked as he stood on the other side of the bench.

"You were supposed to throw it back _there,_ not save it and surprise me with it!"

Swagger shrugged his shoulder.

"I play to win. Thpeaking of, I have a few more pointerth for you," he said, leaning on the bench from behind, stretching his calves as he stood there, advising Heidi. "You've got to thtart working the mic. Showing up to fight ith not enough to win the fanth. You thee how uth professionalth win the crowd over, you've got to thell your cauthe or elthe no one ith going to care."

Heidi breathed deeply, glad to have the scarf over her mouth to warm her breath, and considered Jack's advice. His cockiness was beginning to become a sort of joke to Heidi, since she couldn't possibly imagine taking advice on how to win the fans from the biggest patriotic jerk in the nation, but she couldn't deny that he made a point. She was in a feud with Wade and the Nexus, but the most microphone time she'd gotten was in her debut.

"So you're saying I need to insinuate myself more? Interrupt even _more_ people? Oh yeah, I'm sure that'll go over great," she said sarcastically, folding her arms over her chest to conserve body heat and warm her fingers in her armpits.

Jack shook his head.

"After an article like that, working the mic ith the betht thing you can do for your reputation. It will take the focuth off of the drama and put it back on you and your fat, ugly brother."

Heidi slapped his arm as he insulted Husky, even if she wished she could slap her brother, over and over until his neck snapped and he bobbed his head to questions like, "Do you want to leave the Nexus?"

"Watch it. He's not my enemy, Wade and the rest of the Nexus are," she growled, looking at a misshaped snowman as if he were the greased-back British guido she hated so much. If anything, Husky's appearance a few days ago had steeled her reserve, though she was playing her cards much closer to her chest now. He had found the chink in her armor and had used it to cripple her – he _must_ have been doing it on Barrett's orders...

Jack Swagger, however, was not convinced and he walloped an elephantine fist on the back of the bench, so hard that Heidi felt the rattle all the way up her cold bones.

"Damnit Hellcat, you don't get it! Huthky ith an _enemy._ He'th not going home, he'th not leaving the Nexthus, and he'th not innothent in all of thith! If you want to get him back then you're going to have to fight him." he said, standing up from his lean and brushing the snow from his forearms. "I'm going inthide. Drink a shake with lunch, your bithepth are pathetic," he ordered before he turned and jogged towards the arena doors, leaving Heidi alone and cold on the bench, with a head full to bursting.

By the time the match rolled around, Heidi had plenty of time to think about what Swagger had said. Try as she might she could not turn from the truth in his statement. She was going to have to, at some point, fight her brother.

Not that the two were strangers to fighting, since they had sparred and bickered almost their entire lives, but that was normal sibling stuff as far as Heidi was concerned. Trying to pin her 295 pound brother to the mat, or get him in a submission hold, or knock him out was another matter entirely. When they sparred it was for mutual improvement, not to actually harm one another. In those instances, the busted lips and black eyes could be overlooked over a glass of homemade lemonade on the porch. She didn't think that he would take too lightly to being challenged by his baby sister on live television.

Not that Heidi wanted to get tossed around on national TV either!

There was always the potential of a handicap match, one with her and Swagger against Husky, but Hellcat balked at the thought that _she_ was the handicap. Hadn't she proven to people that she was serious? She was fairly certain that a pair of knees-to-the-face to King Sheamus and a nearly suffocated Jack Swagger should have corrected anyone who thought she was the handicap. Just because she wasn't as big or strong as these muscle-bound freaks...

Heidi had checked the schedule for that night over and over again, making absolutely certain that she hadn't overlooked anything. But there was no mention of Wade or any of the Nexus appearing that night. However, Heidi, who was feeling more driven than usual thanks to Swagger's unappreciated speech, knew that they could arrive at any time. This was a private and sneaky war between the two forces and she couldn't afford to miss a match...

Lily, in her usual fashion, came through for Heidi by presenting her with a top-dollar ticket to the floorshow, dangling it in front of Heidi's face with a grin. _"Now work out some way to disguise yourself, you don't need any more bad publicity!"_ she reminded before patting Heidi's head and whisking out the door to prepare for her job that night.

So, at a reasonable hour, Heidi arrived at the arena dressed in a pair of white capris and a red collared shirt. Ever the one to be prepared, she tucked the gloves that Swagger had given her into her back pocket and wore a pair of sneakers just in case Wade showed his ugly, crooked face.

And, to hide her face from the crowd, Heidi had purchased a red-and-gold Rey Mysterio mask, a stroke of genius for which she felt quite proud. Trying to hide in plain sight would be easy as pie if no one could see her face.

She made it to her seat just in time to see the lights go down and hear the crowd, of which she was a first time participant, start to hum with electrified anticipation. For the first time, she was on the other end of the ropes and she couldn't help but become overwhelmed with the energy of watching. It was a welcome replacement to the nerves that sometimes jittered in the pit of her stomach when she knew she had a match.

As the arena went black, Heidi placed her hands on the partition wall that divided the runway from the crowd and started pounding her fists. Soon, the kid next to her was doing the same thing, and the kid next to him until almost half of the arena was either thumping the wall, stomping their feet, or clapping, all to the beat Heidi had set. Thousands of eager voices chattered and the hum crescendoed into a roar that she had never truly appreciated until that moment. Swagger had told her to get closer to the fans, and there she was, part of them.

Mission accomplished.

As the lights came up and the Titantron displayed "SMACKDOWN" in giant blue letters, the crowd broke into cheers, which Heidi gladly joined. Next to her was a boy of about ten who was wielding a sign that read "REY MYSTERIO" with a white and blue luchador mask. The two of them caught each other's eye and paused for a moment before two grins were seen from under the masks and they high-fived.

When the first bars of music started to play, the whole arena erupted with screams, recognizing the song immediately.

"BOOYAKA, BOOYAKA, 619! BOOYAKA, BOOYAKA, REY MYSTERIO!"

Heidi and the mini-Mysterio both started jumping up and down, she waving her hands and he waving his sign as the short, stacked Mexicano came from backstage. He galloped towards the right hand part of the stage to pump his fist in the air as the fireworks went off, and then repeated the motion towards the left side, where Heidi was busily cupping her hands around her loud, open mouth and screaming "YEAH REY!"

As per usual, Rey started down the aisle and touched his head to a little girl with a luchador mask who was opposite from Heidi and her mini-Mysterio buddy. However, her heart lodged in her throat as he crossed the walkway and grabbed both her and the 10-year-old around the back of the neck and pulled them towards his head. Their foreheads touched and Rey held them for a moment before moving on, leaving the mini-Mysterio with an awestruck expression as he watched his favorite wrestler climb the ropes and enter the ring.

"Ladies and gentleman, please welcome, for the first match of the night, weighing in at 175 pounds, Rey Mysterioooooo!"

Heidi watched, blown away by how much different the experience was in the crowd. She couldn't believe she was thinking it, but Jack was spot-on - indisputably correct! She _did_ need to connect with the crowd. Even though she had already met Rey Mysterio in person and gotten a free lesson from him, having him pick her out of the crowd was a thrill that swinging around the ropes and having her feet kicked out from under her couldn't compare to.

As he climbed the turnbuckle and pumped his fist in the air, Heidi began to think of how dull her most recent entrance was. There was no flair there, no theatrics to excite the crowd. Suddenly she understood that having the fans on her side was tantamount to succeeding. This was what Jack had meant... these people _were_ professionals.

The announcer, standing in the center of the ring, raised the microphone to his lips and gestured towards the same walkway Mysterio had come out from. The Titantron was showing clips of Rey's more acrobatic tricks until the music for Alberto del Rio started to play.

The whole arena started booing as the glimmering white Rolls Royce pulled forward from the depths of the blackness backstage, the trumpets to his entrance theme blaring as if the prince had arrived.

"BOO! YOU SUCK, ALBERTO!" Heidi hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth to make sure that her voice was as loud and direct as she could possibly make it.

As Alberto del Rio stepped out of his car, Ricardo Rodriguez was already standing like a fat penguin in the middle of the ring. The announcer already posted gestured to the sour looking gent and called the audience to please welcome him as del Rio's personal ring announcer, to which the crowd bood vociferously.

Rodriguez held the microphone to his lips, but all Heidi could hear over the sound of her own booing was, "DEL !"

The tall, golden Mexican paraded around his car as if he had just rolled into the past, where his lineage actually mattered and was waving to his alleged ancestors on their royal thrones. Heidi hated every inch of his chutzpa and burned holes into the back of his head with her eyes as he sashayed up to the ring in his diarrhea brown undies.

When it was just del Rio and Mysterio in the ring, Heidi watched intently, wondering what kind of confrontation they were working. Any lessons she could get about working the mic, as Swagger had called it, were to be pounced upon and exploited.

Alberto spoke first, standing with his arms akimbo as his tasselled white scarf fluttered by his hideous panties.

"So Rey, here we are again, in this very ring where I, Alberto del Rio, have defeated you so many times... and will defeat you again. Here, tonight, on Friday Night Smackdown!"

His cocky grin painted every word with inexcusable arrogance and the audience booed loudly, Heidi loudest of all as she and the mini-Mysterio both shouted their hatred for del Rio.

Rey shook his head and walked back and forth for the length of the ring.

"That's not how I remember it, Alberto. That's not how _we_ remember it!" He said, gesturing to the crowd, which roared in support of their king. "I 619'd you on my return to Smackdown, and who can forget the crushing defeat of Team Del Rio by Team Mysterio?" he asked with the smallest of grins.

Alberto shook his head and sneered at the short, stacked man in front of him, over whom he towered by several inches.

"You're nothing, Mysterio. You really think its fair that I, a descendant of kings, should stand here in this ring with you, a lousy peasant? Who is so far beneath me you are as worthless as the ants at my feet?"

It was a long moment before the crowd was quieted enough for Mysterio to speak, and he waved his hands to tell them that it was ok, that he had control of the situation.

Heidi, however, had heard enough.

Before she knew what she was doing and could talk herself out of it, she had leapt the barrier and stood like a cowboy in a western, facing the ring in her Mysterio mask.

Only those on her side of the arena had noticed, and the ten-year-old mini-Mysterio who Heidi had been hollering and high fiving looked at her, horrified.

"Get back here!" he shouted, looking left and right for the security guards that were surely going to tackle this crazy broad. He motioned for her to come back to her seat frantically, pleading with big, puppy eyes behind his white and blue mask.

Heidi did not see him, however, Heidi was no longer Heidi.

She was the Hellcat now, and nothing would stop her, nothing in the world was going to keep her from defending the first friend she had made on her terrific journey.

From the commentator's table, Lily, Lawler, and Cole were all silent as the superstars continued their feud, making few comments that would detract from the drama taking place in the ring.

However, an uncomfortable quiet was starting to dampen the crowd as more and more people noticed the crazy figure standing like a white-and-red silhouette against the blue screen on the Titantron. Her Mysterio mask made them assume that she was a crazed fan taking the dispute much too seriously, and they would partially be right.

Cole stood up and looked over, trying to see around the ring to the figure on the other side.

"Who is that?" he asked, pointing to the masked Heidi, who was standing, immobile, as the crowd and players began to notice her.

Lily's heart stopped.

She knew that outfit. She had seen Heidi tuck the ticket into the back of the pants _she_ had bought.

WHAT WAS SHE DOING?

No matter how skilled a broadcast journalist Lily was, nothing had prepared her for Heidi to make such a bold and unnecessary move. Her voice hitched for a moment and she cleared her throat before looking over to Lawler and Cole, who was still standing and practically seething with rage.

Well, if she couldn't reveal who it was then she could at least diffuse the fear in the faces of her colleagues.

"It looks like a masked woman wants a word with the wrestlers in the ring!" she said excitedly, putting on her commentator voice and watching her friend carefully. She was truly confused, since she was pretty sure that Heidi was a fan of Rey Mysterio and had never expressed any interest in becoming involved in a dispute with del Rio. In Lily's mind, the bad headlines of gossip newspapers were swimming about and she half wanted to knock some sense into the Hellcat's hard head.

Hellcat walked slowly towards the announcer who was coming to cut her off and drag her backstage to throw her out of the arena altogether. When they met, Hellcat elbowed him sharply in the ribs and wrested the microphone away from his hands as he fell to the ground. The crowd gasped, terrified that something bad was about to happen.

"What is this, Rey? You got a little senorita to come to your rescue?" Alberto questioned with disdain, laughing with his smug, self-satisfied smile. Rey looked confused as well but watched the figure move closer, remembering the mask from his entrance, when he had pressed his head to hers.

Without preamble, Hellcat yanked the mask off her face and shook her head, her hair tumbling around her shoulders so that she looked feral. Her green eyes burned like lasers, her lips set in a thin line as she focused all of her ire on del Rio.

Lily, who was glad that Heidi had decided to unmask herself, stood up in excitement. She crossed over to the podium where Michael Cole would read the emails from the anonymous GM and guided the microphone to her lips.

"Ladies and gentlemen, its the Hellcat!"

Heidi looked up as she heard Lily's voice, a gracious smile on her face as she heard the crowd's anxious chattering turn into the occasional whoop and holler. She looked over at the mini-Mysterio and winked at the lad, who just stood there with his mouth agape, hardly able to believe that he had high-fived the Hellcat on the same night that Rey Mysterio had touched foreheads with him.

Mysterio, who was just as confused as the rest of the arena, questioned the Hellcat's arrival.

"Hellcat, long time no see," he greeted genially, waving to her a bit. However, he was still very much so about his business and was wondering what could have possessed her to start interrupting other people's matches, especially after she had made it so clear that she was only there for Wade and the Nexus.

Heidi cleared her throat and lifted her microphone.

"I'm sorry to come in like this, Rey, but you were the first person to show me kindness here in the WWE, and I simply could not stand by and let this _imposter_ drag your name through the mud like that!"

Her voice was strong and it echoed as the microphone amplified her volume a thousand fold. The crowd was beginning to cheer for her now that they knew she was on Mysterio's side, but Alberto, who was never a man to take kindly to sharp words, piped up.

"You mean to tell me that this _girl,_ this _little __**girl**_ is going to call _me_ an imposter?" he asked, eyeing Hellcat as she approached the ring and hoisted herself up, rolling under the bottom rope. Once she was inside, she stood up and shook Rey Mysterio's hand, her red-and-gold mask still clutched in one hand.

Hellcat rounded on del Rio, stabbing a finger right into the middle of his chest with every word she spat at him.

"Callate, pendejo!" she shouted, her face set in a grim expression as the crowd roared to life, clapping and cheering as she insulted the foul, false monarch.

Alberto stalled for a moment, chuckling and talking to himself in Spanish as he gestured to Heidi while looking at Ricardo Rodriguez and shrugging his shoulders. He looked like a master who didn't know what to do with one of his ornery slaves, and not once did that grating smile leave his face.

Rey Mysterio was laughing as Hellcat insinuated herself between him and Alberto del Rio, pleasantly surprised that she knew a Spanish insult.

Alberto lifted his microphone for his rebuttal but Hellcat swatted at his hand and sent the device flying across the stage, where it fell and rolled into the corner.

"I SAID CALLATE!" she roared, the audience laughing and applauding. Whether they understood what she said or not was immaterial, the action alone was enough to send her message: shut up your face!

Ricardo Rodriguez returned del Rio's microphone to him like a faithful Golden Retriever. Alberto didn't even say thank you as he ripped it from his personal ring announcer's hand and ran his hand over his hair to make sure he still looked classy.

"Esta niña habla demasiado," he criticized, looking to Rey as if they were sharing a Spanish joke at the Hellcat's expense, but she simply laughed and clapped her hands.

"I don't know if you know who I am, Alberto, or where I come from, but I was raised in Florida. Habla español!"

The crowd went wild, and she grinned, feeling as if she was hitting her stride. This microphone business wasn't as hard as it seemed, nothing worse than her high school speech class, and she wasn't getting a grade here, nor could she be fired since she wasn't an official wrestler!

"Ladies and gentlemen, Señor del Rio here just accused me of talking too much... am I talking too much?" she asked, walking over to the bottom rope and standing on it, balancing on the turnbuckle to address the people that she hoped to convert into her fans.

The crowd replied with a resounding "NO!" and Hellcat laughed, feeling herself inflate with confidence as the crowd stood behind her.

"I can't hear you, Hartford! I said, am I talking too much?" she roared and then held her microphone towards the seats, cupping her hand around her ear as if she couldn't hear the thousands of people shouting back at her, suddenly on her side.

She would have to remember to thank Swagger for this.

Satisfied, Hellcat wore a grin of her own as she hopped down from the rope and swayed over to Alberto del Rio and Rey Mysterio, who clapped her on the back as she passed. With the three of them standing in a row with Hellcat in the middle, they looked like a realistic diagram of varying socioeconomic status: Alberto with his angora scarf was the clear vassel, Heidi in her simple clothes represented the middle class, and Rey in his sleeveless t-shirt the obvious peasant.

"Usted dice que descienden de los reyes... You say you descend from kings," Hellcat translated, stunning both Mysterio and del Rio with her precise Spanish accent and the fluidity with which she spoke it. "But your name suggests something different."

Alberto del Rio eyed her suspiciously, wondering where she was going to take this. He folded his arms over his chest and planted his feet, looking down at her with just the slightest hint of wariness.

Hellcat laughed, pleased to have the attention and the upper hand.

"Whereas, Rey Mysterio's name tells us exactly what he is. He is the mysterious king, because that is what rey means, Alberto del Rio, it means KING!" Hellcat boomed, putting her arm around Rey Mysterio's shoulder and hugging him close as if the two went way back. "Your name, however, tells exactly what you are too. An _imposter,_ a phony hiding behind his money and cock-and-bull story about a royal legacy!"

Hellcat faced the crowd once again, rallying for their support. Mysterio simply watched, amused, as Hellcat tore del Rio apart.

"Tell me Hartford, do you know what the _rio_ grande is?" she asked, looking into the vast sea of peoples for an answer. "What was that?" she asked when she thought she heard the answer.

"A RIVER!" they shouted back at her, each of her students zealous to hear what she had in store for the hated Alberto del Rio.

Hellcat nodded and clapped.

"That's right, rio means river." She turned back to Alberto, who was scowling now, an unbecoming visage on his otherwise handsome face. He could see now where she was going with all of this but remained silent, his mouth pulled tight, brown eyes smoldering with anger.

"Your name tells me _precisely_ what you are. Alberto from the river. Hmmmm... sounds to me like you could possibly be an illegal immigrant here, Al_ber_to!" Hellcat jested bitingly, laughing at her own joke as the crowd laughed with her.

However the laugh died from her lips as she set her eyes back on Alberto del Rio. She stepped forward, stabbing her finger into the center of his chest again.

"You're no royal man, you're a royal _joke,_ and I'll be sitting right there," she informed, pointing to the seat where the mini-Mysterio was whooping and bouncing on his feet. "To watch Mysterio beat you tonight and prove to all of us here at Friday Night Smackdown that he is the KING!"

The audience came absolutely unhinged at this brazen challenge and not a single seat had a body left in it as they all shot from their chairs and cheered with deafening shouts that filled the arena with a steady roar that refused to die.

Hellcat then tossed her microphone to Ricardo Rodriguez, using him like he was her own slave, and turned to Rey Mysterio. She got closer to him and pulled him in for a hug, partly because she felt sheepish for having stolen his limelight and partly because she wanted to say something to him.

"I'm sorry I meddled, I just couldn't sit by and let him badmouth you like that," she explained, pulling away and looking at him with sincerity, as if she expected a scolding.

Rey, however, simply ruffled her hair.

"Don't sweat it, muchacha, I am _always_ up to watch someone make fun of Alberto," he said with a wink.

Hellcat grinned, her face flushing pleasantly as she pulled her red-and-gold Rey Mysterio mask back over her head, the wild blonde hair spilling out from underneath it. She slipped out of the ring to a cacophony of yells and shouts. Hellcat pumped her fist in the air and made her way around the ring, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the crowd started to chant something.

Heidi made her way back to her seat and climbed over the wall, nearly being clobbered by all the arms and hands trying to pat her on the back, or touch her hair. She shooed the majority of them away after a moment of two, and fist bumped the mini-Mysterio.

Then, the crowd's chant came to a head and Heidi looked up, stunned. The chants of "HELLCAT, HELLCAT, HELLCAT!" were rising on the air and she stood up, looking around with a stunned expression. Alberto del Rio was standing in the ring, glaring at her as if he'd never seen anything so foul in all his life, while Rey was grinning and urging the crowd to chant louder.

Heidi's smile was unmistakable and, as she looked down to the mini-Mysterio who was chanting right along with them, Hellcat pulled him to her side and waved to the crowd, to the fans.

_Her_ fans.

That hadn't taken long at all.


	11. Aristocat

**To everyone who has read and favorited and reviewed - THANK YOU. It is so amazing to have people that actually want more. And of course, more is coming. I may take breaks here and there, but this story is far from over (and even when it's over, there's a sequel in my head so Hellcat will be around for a long time). **

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**Aristocat: Part I  
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First thing the morning after Heidi's dramatic escapade with Alberto del Rio found the Hellcat suiting up for a run, bundling herself as if she were going to spend her vacation with the Inuit. Four pairs of socks, a pair of tights, insulated underpants, three long-sleeved shirts, a coat, and a pair of gloves later and she could hardly bend enough to tie her running sneakers.

Before she left she stuffed her cell phone into her pocket and then was out the door, well before the sun or Lily had risen.

The morning air was biting, a most unwelcome frost had set last night, turning all melted puddles into frozen lakes and rendering all the work the sun had done ultimately useless.

The warm breath that blew from Heidi's covered mouth was white as smoke in the moist, cold air, but she would suffer no rivals, particularly not ones she had no control over.

As the sun started to rise, Heidi was growing tired and she checked her phone as she ran around a patch of sidewalk that had yet to be shovelled. Whether or not there was ice underneath was anyone's guess and the spunky girl was not about to start her morning by face-planting in the snow.

It was getting close to 7... more than enough time for her to catch her mother before work.

Slowing to a walk, Heidi pressed and held the _#2_ button on her phone until the picture of her mother with the family dog came up and indicated it was dialing.

After a moment, she heard the phone clattering on the other end and then the groggy, muffled voice of her mother.

"Hello?" she asked tiredly.

Heidi stammered for a moment and then cleared her throat.

"Hi mom," she answered, walking slowly now up an alleyway and around a dumpster full of reeking, frozen refuse.

The other end of the line was silent but Heidi could hear the even breaths of her mother.

"I've seen you on TV, Heidi. Is that why you left?" her mother asked. It was a simple question, one free of harsh implications but Heidi couldn't help but feel guilty. It was bad enough her mother had lost a son to the sport, but with Heidi's disappearance it probably felt like she had lost her too.

"No, I left to get Husky to pull his head outta his,"

"Heidi," her mother warned; a preemptive strike on her daughter's somewhat foul mouth.

"Sorry," Heidi mumbled as she looked up to a street sign and saw that she was at least on a road with a name she remembered. "Look, mom, I just wanted to call and tell you that I'm all right. I've actually made friends here!"

From the other end, Heidi could hear the soft shuffling that suggested her mother was putting on a gown and leaving the room so she wouldn't wake Heidi's father.

"I'm happy to hear that, sweetheart. When are you coming home?"

It was the question Heidi had dreaded and she took her time thinking up an answer before finally admitting, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" her mother repeated, somewhat less gently. "You leave without a word and you don't know when you're coming back?"

Heidi sighed in frustration. Her mother was always thinking of the details that Heidi improvised her way through, like what her plans were for money and shelter.

She didn't understand the singularity of her daughter's purpose.

"Mom, I'm not leaving without Husky," she said firmly, turning down the main drag and bracing herself against the cold wind that blew in her face and into the phone.

Her mother sighed.

"Heidi, you know how your brother gets. You're both too stubborn for your own good! He's never going to come back if you give him ultimatums, or challenge him outright, you know that!"

Heidi shook her head.

"I'm sick of tip-toeing around him! You've seen the crowd he runs with, those guys are a bunch of punks and I'm done with the way they treat _everyone,_ including Husky!" Heidi countered, her voice rising as evidence of conviction, not as obstinance to her mother.

Her mother snorted with laughter, the sound of a coffee pot being turned on in the background.

"You were _never_ good at tip-toeing, Heidi."

The both of them shared a laugh.

"Well if you're not coming home then could you promise to call more often?" her mother asked in a tone that was too sweet to say no to.

Rolling her eyes as if the task were truly taxing, Heidi sighed.

"Oh I _suppose,"_ she jested.

After a few more minutes of idle chit-chat, Heidi hung up, feeling considerably better about her situation. There was nothing quite like a pep-talk from mom to light the fires underneath her bum. Feeling so inspired, she decided to run a bit further now that the sun was beginning to peak over the snowy Connecticut horizon.

She stepped out into the street to run around an especially large pile of snow when she heard a pair of car brakes apply hard, shrieking a long, white, sparkling car to a sudden halt, mere feet from where Heidi was watching, too stunned to move.

Knowing full well that it was her fault, Heidi walked around to the passenger's side but couldn't see inside the pitch black windows so she merely made a guilty face at the window and said, "I'M SORRY!" to whoever was inside. She tapped the tinted widow with her fingertip, wanting the driver to roll it down so that she could deliver a proper apology.

When the passenger's side back door opened, Heidi straightened and looked over, her arm outstretched in a display of apology.

"I'm really sorry, I hope your car is all right," she said as a tall Hispanic man stood from the cab of the car, with with gloves and a white tie standing out against the snappy black suit he wore, one decorated with a thin white pinstripe.

"Lociento," she began, just in case the man didn't speak English, but before she could get another word out he lurched forward and grabbed her arm in his big hand, pulling her towards him. With the extra padding Heidi had worn, no amount of struggling could wrest herself away from his grip on her coat and three undershirts, and he effortlessly dragged her into the car.

"LET ME GO OR I'LL KICK ALL YOUR TEETH OUT!" she threatened with vitriol as his hands stuffed her into the backseat with much toil as the Hellcat fought every inch of the way. She squirmed, thrashed, threw her weight around as if she were a pissed off pinball but the man had a hold of her clothing so all she managed to do was ruffle her own feathers.

Her many layers of insulation proved Heidi's downfall and she was effectively chucked into the car with the kidnapper behind her, closing the door.

Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness that the black tinted windows provided, she saw before her a sight she never would have imagined: The back seat was like a limo, with two long seats that faced each other with fancy screens and gadgets about. Sitting alone in his seat was Alberto del Rio, with his arm along the empty seat next to him, dressed in a white suit with a classy gold tie, one that matched the 24 carat cufflinks that glittered by his wrists. In a free hand, he had a glass of orange juice.

"Hellcat," he greeted, his condescending smile in place. "How nice of you to join us."

"It's not joining if it's forced, del Rio!" It was never too early to mouth off.

He painted on a fake look of hurt as Heidi slapped the unknown Hispanic man's hands away from her as he tried to buckle her seatbelt.

"What is this? You were so concerned about my car a moment ago and now you have no regrets?" he asked, pressing a hand to his chest.

"No," she snapped. "I don't care if you and Tonto drive over a cliff!" She leaned back in her chair and tried to fold her arms over her chest but couldn't quite manage to tuck them over one another thanks to her Michelin-Man padding and opted to rest her hands on her knees, where they flexed and unflexed in her growing anger.

Much to Heidi's dismay, while she had been bickering with Alberto, the white Rolls Royce had begun moving, easing forward into the minimal early morning traffic until they were on a freeway.

She pressed her face against the window and looked out, shocked.

"Where are you going?" she asked, looking back to her cocky captor, who had finished his orange juice and had handed the glass back to the Hispanic man who'd done his dirty work for him, who was now polishing the glass back to its original luster.

Alberto del Rio simply chuckled and touched the cream, tasselled scarf he couldn't be parted from.

"You mean where are _we_ going, Hellcat."

It was Heidi's turn to laugh now.

"Yeah, well I've already run all over this town," she said confidently, wiggling into the soft leather seat. "And wherever you take me, I'm pretty sure I can find my way back." As she finished, she stuck her nose in the air and faced the window, secretly hoping that her bluff was right since there had been no freeway in her jog with Swagger the day prior.

At this, the silent Hispanic man and Alberto del Rio shared big laughs, and del Rio shook his head.

"Oh Hellcat, you won't be running back from where I take you," he assured, leaning forward to pat her patronizingly on the knee.

Just as smoothly as the car had rolled into traffic, it took a turn and started down a long, narrow runway near the edge of town, having made remarkable time considering the early hour. The analog clock on the side panel said it to be just 7:15 AM, meaning that Heidi had only squeezed in an 45 minute run before she'd called her mom and been shanghai'd.

"You never answered my question, del Rio," Heidi urged again, watching with growing dread as the white and lustrous Rolls Royce pulled up to a hangar where several private planes were seen. One spot on the end was unoccupied, however, and Heidi gulped hard as she saw the plane come into view.

It was bright gold.

The engines were running.

The propellers where spinning.

"If you think I'm getting on that plane then you're out of your mind!" she roared. Quickly, she thrust her elbow out to knock the Hispanic man next to her in the mouth, but with her layers and layers of clothing she may as well have instigated a pillow fight.

Alberto del Rio simply laughed as his chauffeur got out of the front and opened his door for him, letting in cold blasts of wind from the loud runway.

"See to it that she gets on the plane," Alberto instructed as he stood from the car, pointing to Heidi on his way out like she were just another bit of luggage.

Tonto nodded and soon had Heidi in a bear hug.

She made a mental note to never, ever go somewhere so cold that she needed more than two shirts again.

Her humiliation was solidified as the tall Hispanic man scooted out of the car and then stood, a crunch of ice salt underneath his shining spats. With Heidi in a bear hug she couldn't wriggle herself out of, her feet dangled off the ground as the man walked her towards the airplane, negotiating the steps to the aircraft as easily as a man toting a grown woman could.

Once her feet touched the plush carpet, the man shoved her roughly and then backed away and shut the door behind her. Heidi spun around and started pushing against the large, circular door hand but was horrified to discover that the sign went from "Unlocked" to a bright red death sentence as he turned the wheel and looked at her indifferently from the round window.

"Locked."

Heidi roared. This was _exactly_ why she didn't call her mother more often. She could just imagine how that conversation would go: _"Hi mom! Everything is great. I'm being shipped like cargo to an unknown location by a man I pissed off in the wrestling ring, but other than that there's nothing at all new to report!"_

She drummed her fists on the door in rapid succession, and tried turning the wheel from the inside but it would not budge.

"Hellcat, come on, show some class," Alberto teased.

Heidi looked over her shoulders, glaring at him deeply, her lip already starting to curl.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked again, marching around the coffee table laden with a champagne bottle sitting in a golden bucket filled with ice, to stand in front of him, hand on her hips.

"Where else would I take my private jet? Home," he answered calmly, reaching around Heidi to pour himself a glass of champagne.

Heidi's jaw dropped, lost momentarily in unadulterated shock. Alberto del Rio simply laughed at her expression and touched his index to her chin, shutting her mouth for her.

"You will learn some manners, Hellcat. I won't allow you to be so crass at my home. There, you will be expected to be a lady," he said, looking up at her without his smile this time, his dark eyes very serious.

"You're taking me to _MEXICO?"_ she asked, falling back onto the leather couch that faced the one del Rio was sitting at.

Alberto nodded, his smile returned.

"That's right."

"BUT WHY? You know this is kidnapping, right? I don't even have my passport with me, and whatever strange ideas you have cooking in your head about what's going to happen in Mexico, you can forget them! Let me off of this plane now!" she demanded, her voice rising so that it filled the whole cabin and echoed a few times over.

Alberto simply took a polite sip of his champagne and arranged himself comfortably on his white leather couch.

"Don't you remember? You asked for this, Hellcat. Last night, when you called me a royal joke in front of thousands of people. You accused me of being a liar and insulted my heritage. I am going to make you eat your words, ni_ñ__a,"_ he explained. "When we get to Mexico, I am going to show you everything, from my mansion to my family to the royal ground where my ancestors have called home for centuries. You'll see just how out of my league you and your little friends are," he promised gravely, though when he was finished, he did so with a condescending smile and a lift of his champagne glass.

Heidi listened and unravelled herself from the many layers of clothes she no longer had a need for now that she was imprisoned on a warm jet. She threw her coat onto the floor and delighted in the frown she received from del Rio so much so that she chucked two of her three long-sleeved shirts onto the pile as well and kicked off her shoes, creating quite a pile on the otherwise flawless surface of his jet's floor.

"So you're taking me to Mexico without a passport or any luggage? Some gentleman you are," she huffed, sitting cross-legged on his white couch since she knew he probably did not allow feet on his impeccable leather.

At this mention, Alberto snapped his fingers in the air, looking down the hallway to the back of the plane, which led to a bedroom and a row of comfortable looking plane seats arranged around a square table.

From the darkened hallway, a stewardess appeared, decked in a short, tight, white uniform with her long black hair pulled up into a fashionable ponytail, her pin-straight hair falling all the way to her back even as it was held up. Her eyes smiled just as brightly as her mouth, which pulled back to reveal dazzlingly white teeth behind lurid red lipstick. In one hand was a white garment bag, in the other was a pair of flip-flops adorned with glittering jewels and crafted from fine leather.

Heidi looked to the stewardess and then to Alberto del Rio, who was grinning from ear-to-ear.

"I will make you a lady, Hellcat. Go, put it on. Angela will help you," he said, gesturing to the bathroom down the hall.

Heidi took another appraising look at Angela, who looked like anything but a lady and then turned her scrutinous eyes back to del Rio.

"You're serious? You parade Cancun Barbie here in that and then expect me to wear whatever you give me? To es loco," she said, sitting back on the couch and folding her arms over her chest.

Alberto and Angela exchanged amused looks, and he nodded to her, giving her some sort of sign with the wagging of his fingers. Angela then unzipped the garment bag to reveal a lovely white dress, typical of the traditional Mexican style with a shoulder hugging neckline and a neatly embroidered hanging flap over the bosom for added modesty.

Alberto looked to Heidi and smiled, clearly very happy with himself.

"I said I will make you a _lady, not_ a woman. Now put it on!"

A few moments later, after some harried Spanish words to keep Angela from trying too hard to enter the bathroom and help Heidi into possibly the simplest dress ever created, she emerged to find Angela holding a pair of dangling wooden earrings and a white hat with a wide and puckered brim. She simply looked at them but the stewardess would not take no for an answer, so by the time Heidi emerged into the main cabin, she was dressed in everything that Alberto del Rio had set out for her, earrings, hat, and bedazzled flip-flops and all.

Alberto stood up when Heidi entered, beaming at her, and gestured for her to take a seat.

"Ah, Miss Hellcat. You look lovely," he teased, sitting only after Heidi had.

Folding her legs at the knee, Heidi sat down and looked around for the pile of clothes, which had been moved somewhere out of sight.

"All right del Rio, I have a proposition for you," she said, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially one who could help her attack the Nexus and take Wade Barrett out.

Alberto lifted a brow but settled into his seat silently, waiting to hear it.

"If you do in fact change my mind about you, then I..." here she seemed to struggle with her words, as if they were sticking in her craw and refused to spill out without great force. "I will give you a formal apology in the ring. BUT," she interjected, leaning forward and pointing to keep Alberto from grinning too widely. "if you _don't_ change my mind then you have to help me take out Wade Barrett and the Nexus," she finished smugly, folding her fingers and then neatly placing them in her lap, looking the part of a lady to the tee.

Alberto stroked his clean shaven chin, looking to the ceiling as he mulled the thoughts over.

"All right, you have a deal. But you have to go along with what I say - wear what I tell you, accompany me places, and act like a real lady." He stuck out his hand across the polished marble coffee table. "Do we have a deal, Hellcat?"

Heidi eyed him for a moment, and then took his hand and shook it.

"Deal."

"Oh good," Alberto said, leaning back and mockingly wiping sweat from his brow. "Because we're already in the air."

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**I live for reviews. Seriously. Clicky!**


	12. First Blood

**I am in love with this chapter. Seriously. I hope you all enjoy.**

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When Heidi didn't come back from her early morning run immediately, Lily was not surprised. She was extremely proud of her young friend for taking something so seriously and striving with all of her gumption to craft herself into what she needed to become in order to achieve her goal. Lily hadn't expected it, but Swagger had actually been a beneficial influence on Heidi, pushing her to train harder and longer, building her stamina in case she got into the ring and really had to battle for victory.

This meant, of course, that Lily saw less and less of her friend, but that was to be expected. In a secret place deep inside, Lily needed Heidi to succeed, not for herself but for Husky.

But, in true Lily fashion, she kept those thoughts to herself. No need to throw a wrench in the operation by reminiscing a little too fondly.

However, when there was still no sign of Heidi by dinnertime, her favorite time of day, Lily started to become concerned. Even before Heidi had begun her Hellcat quest, she had been a hearty eater, and now that Swagger was running behind her cracking the whip all day, she had become a veritable garbage disposal.

And it was Saturday. Lily and Heidi always went out to eat on Saturday night.

When the hotel phone rang and it was Swagger asking where Heidi was, Lily felt her stomach knot up.

"You mean you haven't seen her all day? I thought she was at the gym with you!" she said, pacing back and forth before the two beds in her hotel room, one of which still unmade from where Heidi had left that morning.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, her toe tapping anxiously against the plush carpet in her patent leather alligator-print boots, Lily checked her phone, manicured fingers gliding over the touchscreen like skates on ice.

Several new messages, all from a Florida area code. It was Heidi.

Lily heaved a sigh of relief as she opened her inbox to read them. Heidi was probably just staying late to work in some extra practice.

However, Lily's stomach felt as if someone had dropped a brick into it as she read the first message.

_Harris, Heidi: **OMG del Rio freakin' kidnapped me. Sounds more dramatic than it really is, I SWEAR. **_

Lily's eyes widened as she read the next message, dated a few hours after the first one.

_Harris, Heidi: **I'll be back in time for RAW. I just made a deal with del Rio and can't wait to make him eat his words. 8D **_

"WHAT?" She asked aloud, shouting at the phone as the news worsened.

_Harris, Heidi: **So we get here and there's a party to celebrate his homecoming. He taught me how to dance... how weird is it that this meathead knows the rumba?**_

Despite her worries, Lily couldn't help but laugh as she opened the next message, which was a color picture of Heidi in a knee-length canary yellow sun-dress being dipped by Alberto del Rio. Then it struck her – Alberto del Rio's homecoming?

Heidi was in Mexico?

Lily's fingers flew like a flock of birds escaping a predator, writing back in a flurry of panic:

_Stark, Lily: **YOU ARE IN MEXICO?**_

It took hours for Heidi to reply, confirming that she had indeed been taken to San Luis Potosi, Alberto del Rio's hometown.

Over the course of the weekend, Lily kept her phone fastened to her side, checking every so often to see new pictures and updates on Heidi's impromptu adventure in a foreign country.

_Harris, Heidi: **:O this idiot just gave some guy a rolling cross arm breaker for asking what the parade was all about. Del Rio said, 'he should have known that the prince had come home.' WTH?**_

_Harris, Heidi: **_ HE MADE ME GO SHOPPING WITH HIS SISTER. I swear, if I try on one more dress, I'm going to start farting glitter.**_

There were videos as well, of Heidi dancing with del Rio, the two of them glaring as if it were a competition to see who could possibly have the least amount of fun while doing something classy, like the salsa.

_Harris, Heidi: **I think I just ate pig intestine.**_

_Harris, Heidi: **We're coming back today! Private hangar on 1****st**** street at about 9pm. I'll be the bimbo in the red cocktail dress. -_-**_

Lily waited by her car, arms folded tightly around her chest as the cold, northerly wind blew at her face, chapping her cheeks. The days had warmed since Heidi had been gone, melting a good deal of the snow on the ground, but the piles were still present, diminishing slowly over time, and the wind refused to relent. Once the sun was gone it was back to winter as usual.

Breathing through her cream colored scarf, Lily felt a jolt course through her stomach, clenching in anticipation as she saw a jet come in for landing. She checked her pearl, ceramic watch. It was 8:57 – right on time.

Once the plane was stopped, Lily gawked for a moment, unable to stop a disbelieving chuckle from falling from her lips. A gold jet? That was... classy.

As the stairs dropped down and Lily saw a red dressed lady walk out, she gaped for a moment.

"Heidi?" she asked, trotting forward, running just fast enough to ensure she wouldn't fall in her high heels or on the uneven surface thanks to the ice-salt.

Beaming, which Lily had not expected, Heidi looked up and ran towards her, the shining knee-high camel brown boots taking the run effortlessly. Heidi threw her arms around Lily's neck and hugged her in the same almost-too-tight fashion.

"LILY!" she exclaimed as she pulled away, her cheeks bright from the change from warm jet to cold winter air.

"Heidi, you look... "

"Like a lady, no?" del Rio asked as he walked up behind Heidi, carrying a Louis Vuitton piece of luggage in each hand. His usual haughtiness was somehow tamed and Heidi rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't forget," she said, as if she were addressing a generally disliked relative who had uncharacteristically said something true.

Alberto simply smiled, cocky as ever, and said over Heidi's head, "she had a good time, no matter what she tries to tell you. So I'll see you in the ring tomorrow night, right Hellcat?" he asked, looking expectantly down to her.

Lily arched a brow as Heidi turned around, sighing.

"A deal's a deal," she sighed, sticking out her hand to shake as the same large Hispanic man who had grabbed her days ago took the luggage and started putting it into Lily's car. Alberto grinned and shook her hand.

"Then I will leave you ladies. Vaya con Dios," he said with a little nod of his head before stepping into the white limousine that had pulled up next to Lily's green sedan.

"What deal were you two talking about?" Lily asked as she buckled her seatbelt, Heidi sitting next to her, resplendent in her ruby red dress, but obviously cold since the little white cardigan did little to protect her from the chill.

Heidi rubbed her hands and held them close to the heat vent.

"I told him that if he could change my mind about whether or not he was actually noble, I would give him..." she sighed, the words obviously paining her. "a formal apology in the ring admitting that I was wrong about him," she explained.

Lily looked over, amused and surprised as she merged into the traffic on the freeway.

"So I take it you didn't have a horrible time there?" she asked, looking in the rearview mirror to see the pristine designer luggage in the backseat.

Heidi sighed and put her feet on the dashboard in a way that Lily could remember her doing from the time they met, before Heidi's feet could even properly reach the dash.

"At first I thought he was trying to impress me with all his money, you know, like being rich made him special or some stupid BS like that," she began, relaxing her head against the headrest and yawning. "But when we got to his hometown, the place went nuts. Treated him like a freaking god, you know, which pissed me off because I was certain he was just a blowhard dirtbag."

Heidi paused for a moment as another yawn tore her mouth open wide.

"But he was a gentleman throughout the entire weekend." Her voice made it sound as if she were disappointed; that if she'd had an awful time it would have been easier for her. Lily couldn't help but laugh as they parked and piled out of the car. A formal apology in the middle of the ring to admit she had been wrong about Alberto del Rio was just the sort of thing that would dampen her spirits.

Heidi grabbed her luggage and lifted it up as if to say, 'can you believe he bought me this crap?'

Lily giggled and held the elevator door open for her friend.

"I take it those aren't full of sneakers and knee pads?" she teased lightly, bumping Heidi with her elbow as the lift took them up to their floor.

Heidi rolled her eyes.

"Yeah right, him buy me something I _needed? HA! _They're full of shoes and swimsuits I'll never wear."

When the lights went down and the pyrotechnics began, Heidi groaned backstage. Tonight was the night she had to bite the bullet and apologize in front of an entire country for talking mad dirt on Alberto del Rio. She had wanted to put it off for as long as possible, but she had to keep her word.

She gulped and was more nervous than she had been when she actually had a match. Apologies were not something that Heidi excelled at, especially to rich dolts like del Rio. He may have been a gentleman in Mexico but she hardly expected that to translate into anything in the ring. He was still a cheater, and now he was a cheater to whom she owed concession.

But this was her course. If she backed down from this then her word would be diminished. She couldn't make promises and not follow through – it would jeopardize her sincerity to her root cause: to win back Husky.

Nervously bouncing from foot to foot, Heidi shook her hands, as if the nerves were stored in her fingertips and she could get rid of them like water droplets. There was a stone in the pit of her stomach as well, one that seemed to expand so that she pressed against the churning wreckage of her tummy.

Everything was set up for her to make her ringside apology. She had even selected a video of her delivering her knees-to-the-face and an entrance song for her to walk out to; just the sort of things that she needed in order to be taken seriously in this industry.

But still, she was nervous. She would be exposed up there, and most of all, alone.

Swagger wasn't coming.

Their day had been somewhat less than friendly. They had spent the entire workout shouting at one another, throwing accusations left and right between panting breaths as he kept adding weights to her machines. He was furious that she had 'taken the weekend off' as he called it, implying that he cared more about winning than she did. When he'd taken a particularly low jab by calling her del Rio's girlfriend, Heidi had walloped him in the eye so hard that he had stormed off, knocking a treadmill over on his way out.

Heidi hadn't seen him since.

There went her only ally. Against one of the Nexus, Heidi stood a chance, but the six of them were too much of a match for Cena, let alone a rookie like her.

It was pure sabotage, going out unprotected into the ring, but she couldn't back down either. She was caged in – if she bolted without Swagger's help then she would show her true colors to the Nexus and everyone who had doubted her would be right. Heidi would be nothing more than a lying coward, too scared to get what she had coming.

When the first bars of her entrance theme,_ 'O Green World'_ by the Gorillaz started to play, Heidi closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped out around the corner into the arena that awaited her.

The crowd was mostly quiet, the interesting hip-hop-techno-hybrid confusing them until they saw the Titantron play a picture of the Hellcat kneeing Sheamus in the face with a spectacular swing over the ropes and then saw her emerge from backstage.

Hellcat grinned, putting on her game face, and waved to her few handful of fans as she walked down the ramp to the ring. Hoisting herself up inside, a referee gave her a microphone, and the Gorillaz song slowly faded into the background while the crowd quieted down enough for her to speak.

Lily watched from the commentator's table, looking around for Swagger, who she had expected to be right behind Hellcat, acting as her bodyguard, and otherwise doing his job protecting Heidi from goons like the Nexus. She was nervous but had come to fret needlessly whenever Heidi was in the ring and simply smoothed her hair and watched, earning sidelong glances from Lawler and Punk, who noticed a difference in their colleague but were quiet as they waited for the Hellcat to begin speaking.

Heidi looked up at the crowd, awed. Thousands of faces stared back at her and she began to feel calmed somewhat, offering them her smile.

"Hello Concord!" she greeted, raising her hands to pull a cheer from New Hampshire's mouth, the audience clapping and whooping loudly. Hellcat's grin was in place, placating Lily's jangled nerves. In just one week Heidi had been crushed by her brother and then kidnapped but there, before the crowd, Heidi looked rather at home, talking to them as if they had all been a part of her journey.

"As many of you know, I am here to get my brother Husky back from Wade Barrett and the Nexus." Hellcat paused as the Nexus fans booed her, shaking their yellow "N" signs while the other fans (mostly wearing purple shirts) jumped up and down in the affirmative.

Hellcat chuckled into the microphone as she walked casually around the ring, one thumb hooked in the waist of her long silver shorts.

"And I have done my best to accomplish this task in my short time here. But I hit a snag last week, why don't we roll the clip?" she asked, pointing to the Titantron.

Instantly, the footage rolled of Heidi standing defiantly before Alberto del Rio, calling him an imposter and accusing him outright of being a liar.

At this, the crowd was even more pleased, clapping and cheering and waving various signs that read things like, _"RIO IS A RIVER RAT"_ and, _"ALBERTO DEL FEO."_

Hellcat grinned a little as the clip finished and then sighed.

"BUT... it appears I was wrong. See, this past week, Alberto del Rio and I made a deal," Heidi stopped as the boos hit her like a brick wall and she had to force a smile on her face as she allowed them to voice their displeasure. It was all part of the experience. "Don't get so upset now, it was only because he took me by force," she assured, and the crowd seemed to calm somewhat. "And it looks like, at least in his neck of the woods, del Rio is treated like royalty. So, Alberto del Rio..." she swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Jerry Lawler looked over to Lily, the question apparent before he had even opened his mouth.

"Lily, the Hellcat is one of your personal friends, right? What do you think about her association with guys like Alberto del Rio? Don't you think that spits in the face of what she's really trying to do here?"

However, before Lily could open her mouth to administer a reply, Michael Cole interjected, his grating voice carrying well over anyone else's.

"Oh would you _quit_ calling her the Hellcat? She's not a wrestler, her name is Heidi Harris, and she's unwelcome here. And if anything, I would think that her connections with quality gentlemen like Alberto del Rio would only _boost _her pathetic popularity!" he countered, a childish look on his face as he folded his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at the Hellcat.

Heidi was watching the Titantron again as it displayed the picture messages she had sent to Lily, all depicting her and del Rio having a less than loathsome time with one another.

As she lifted the microphone to her mouth, preparing to make some funny comment about the likelihood of ever seeing her in a dress again, Heidi heard the crowd gasp. When she looked over her shoulder, the only thing she saw was a large yellow "N" and a massive expanse of black as she was struck across the face so hard that she went flying to the ground. Landing in a heap on her chin, Heidi's brain slowly fogged from the hit, clearly dazed and momentarily knocked out.

The culprit was Wade Barrett, who had ran down the ramp at top speed and entered the ring while Heidi's back was to him, gazing at the photos on the screen, hardly able to believe that things had gone so smoothly thus far.

The crowd had tried to warn her, had tried to alert her, but it was too late.

By the time the Hellcat looked around she was already on the receiving end of an open-palmed slap.

Wade Barrett smiled crookedly as he looked down to the Hellcat, lying helpless on the floor like the little girl that she was. He stooped to pick up her microphone and pushed her roughly over with the toe of his boot, so that he could look down into her face.

The audience was absolutely, ear-splittingly enraged. People jumped from their seats, the noise level went from shocked to utterly appalled in a matter of moments, watching, horrified, as Wade Barrett single-handedly took out the Hellcat.

Adding insult to injury, Wade placed his black boot on top of the Hellcat's sternum and pushed down, leaning over her as the air shot out from her lungs, shaking his head and smirking smugly.

"Hellcat, you just had to get in the way, didn't you?" he asked, his British accent lost somewhere in the cacophony of boos. Heidi's eyes opened and she breathed heavily, trying to get as much air as she could while Wade stomped on her lungs, pinning her beneath him with pride.

"But you weren't prepared for this," he said cryptically, lifting his foot and letting Hellcat sit up, clutching her sides as she gasped, refilling her lungs with much-needed oxygen.

"Oh no," Lily said, her lunch steadily on its way back up her throat, the acrid tang of metal in her mouth indicating that she was about to be sick. Wade Barrett had already knocked her out, surely, surely the Nexus weren't going to come out and beat her. They wouldn't do that, Husky wouldn't allow it...

But Lily was wrong.

As soon as Wade lifted his foot, he turned towards the ramp, where David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Michael McGillicutty, and Husky Harris all stood in a line, their fists in the air to brandish their black Nexus arm bands with pride unhampered by sentiment.

"SOMEBODY STOP THEM!" Lily shrieked, in a total panic as she leapt from her seat and gestured emphatically towards the stage. Her eyes implored Lawler and CM Punk as well, begging them not to stand idly by and let six men beat up a girl.

Michael Cole merely laughed and commented how it was only fair for her to know who her enemies were since Hellcat had made no qualms about her efforts to take out all of the Nexus.

"I don't know why you're so surprised, Stark," he replied. "This is what the Nexus do! This is why they are so great. They fight in numbers, they stick together, and they are not to be trifled with! Your little Heidi messed with the wrong crowd and wasn't even smart enough to bring Swagger to watch her back! She deserves everything she's getting up there."

"Screw you," she hissed, angry tears welling in her eyes. Unable to stand idly by, Lily looked around for a moment for anything, anything that could help her friend stand up against the beating that looked eminent. Then, just when she was starting to feel really nauseous, she spotted a steel folding chair next to the commentator's table. Without pausing to think twice, Lily lurched forward, grabbed it, and ran towards the ring with a speed that six inch heels should have hampered.

"And ladies and gentlemen, it looks like our own Lily Stark is not going to just let the Hellcat receive this beatdown!" Lawler cried excitedly, holding his headpiece as he leaned forward, watching the scene unfold.

Lily screamed "HEIDI" in a shrill cry that caught the Hellcat's attention in seconds flat. She almost sobbed at the sight of the weapon, grateful that at least someone was thinking about how she could fight her way out of the predicament. Lily scooted the chair towards her like a hockey puck and then stood to the side, backing slowly away from the ring only when she saw Heidi grab the chair, much to Barrett's chagrin.

By the time the Hellcat was on her feet with the steel chair in her hands, the rest of the Nexus were climbing hurriedly into the ring, pushing the ropes aside and hopping over them entirely, in Justin Gabriel's case.

For a moment they paused, surrounding her like a pack of wolves on a gimping gazelle. The tension in the air was cleaved only by the sudden cheers, but Hellcat paid them no attention. She could see only as far as the ropes, with a large, imposing body blocking her vision every way she turned.

Gulping, Hellcat planted her feet and picked out her first target, Heath Slater.

Rushing forward, she swung her hands back and then brought them forward, cracking Heath square in the jaw with the velocity of her sudden dash, swinging the chair as if it were Thor's hammer.

The impact was jarring, the steel chair sending the redhead to his knees, where his eyes rolled a few times and his lids got heavy with the impending unconsciousness that was sure to follow a blow like that.

But Heidi saw none of it.

Chaos had erupted into the ring and she heard little through her own pulse pounding in her skull and the omnipresent roar of the crowd. However, she soon discovered what the ruckus was about when she saw David Otunga suddenly lurch forward, taking out Justin Gabriel on his way to the ground.

And then the Hellcat saw just what had happened.

Standing behind her, with a steel chair raised over his head while he beat on his tan chest with his other fist, was Jack Swagger.

His eye was still bruised and purple from where she had thrown him a vicious uppercut earlier that day, but the smile that stole her grimace away was so large you'd have thought that Thor himself had come wielding his own mighty hammer.

Wade Barrett glowered and gave Swagger a big boot immediately, sending the All-American American spinning before falling to the ground. As soon as he was down, Barrett tried to wrest the steel chair away from Swagger but stumbled back as the blonde forced the chair into his gut.

Lily had never been so happy to see Jack Swagger in all her life. All of the clever jokes she had made at his expense, all of the disparaging comments she had made to the American public about the his little worth were taken back in that instant when she witnessed him do something selfless for the first time.

Hellcat had little time to consider her luck before she felt a hand around her throat and looked up to see David Otunga glaring over her. He picked her up, holding her face to his for a moment, the both of them warring with their eyes before Hellcat swung her foot forward once, straight into his crotch.

He dropped her then, falling to his knees, holding his loins in an amusing reminder of a 3rd grader who needed to use the potty, before toppling over and rolling onto his side.

In a rage, Hellcat brought the steel chair down on Otunga's body once, twice, three times, and was about to administer a fourth crushing blow with her steel-chair-weapon when she felt someone grab her around the middle and hip toss her to the ground.

She didn't need to open her eyes to know that the culprit was Husky.

He had thrown her like that a thousand times before, but never, ever, had he used his full weight against her like he did then.

Temporarily breathless, Hellcat watched in pure agony as the steel chair clattered against the ring and then out of her grasp. Husky's 300 pounds were more than enough to immobilize her, being twice her size and he bound her arms in a submission hold that soon had her vision narrowing through a circle of blackness, like she was looking through the wrong end of a telescope, seeing the world get further and further away...

It was all over for her when Heath Slater brought the steel chair down on Heidi's head in a ruthless retaliation for her earlier indiscretion against him.

Husky felt her struggle for a moment and then fall completely limp in his arms as the chair broke in half over her blonde head. A warm trickling over his arm alerted him to look down and he saw, somewhat to his displeasure, that Heidi had a cut that was bleeding into her hair and down her neck.

He scrambled away from her as if he'd been burned, letting her fall, limp and pathetic, to the ring.

Swagger, who had still been fighting valiantly, lost his concentration for a split second when he noticed the streak of blood that flew into the air when the chair broke. In those precious few seconds, Justin Gabriel flew off the turnbuckle and landed on Swagger's back, sprawling him face-first to the ground where the chair skidded away from him.

It was over then. He was finally done in when he was hit in the back of the head with a chair by Justin Gabriel at the same time Michael McGillicutty swung the other at his knees. The All-American American swayed for a moment until Wade Barrett sealed the deal. In no time at all he gathered Jack Swagger onto his shoulders and delivered, much to the horror of the wildly booing crowd, his finisher: The Wasteland.

Both blondes lay unconscious on the ring floor, barely inches from each other. Hellcat was still bleeding, as was now becoming apparent to the crowd and Lily as her hair, which fell over her face, was staining the lurid crimson color of clotting blood.

Wade Barrett, who lifted his fist in the air, relished in the crowd's hateful reaction to what he had done. He looked back to his Nexus lapdogs and nodded, pleased with their performance that night. The blood on the Hellcat's head did little to dissuade him from taking his time and he pumped his fist into the air, the Nexus following suit. Husky complied, albeit a little slower than the rest of his teammates.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Lily chanted, pacing back and forth as she tried to get a good look between the bodies to see if Heidi was all right. The fact that she hadn't heard a battlecry or a feral howl was giving her a sickening feeling, like a whirlpool in her gut.

"HEIDI!" she shouted again, throwing caution to the wind and climbing the steel steps to the ring, her crimped hair bobbing with each step she took.

When she negotiated the ropes, she had to force her way between Otunga and McGillicutty, using her elbows to insinuate herself in the midst of things while the crowd was busily booing and chanting "YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK, YOU SUCK!"

Seeing Heidi lying boneless, bleeding, and beaten was the final straw for the ordinarily even-tempered Lily Stark.

"YOU MONSTERS!" she screeched, coming utterly unhinged. Bending her knee, she grabbed the six-inch silver stiletto she had on and pulled it off, brandishing it like a tomahawk at the nearest body, which happened to be Justin Gabriel. He tried to ward her off by holding his arm out but was stabbed in the bicep with the sharp point of her heel.

Lily kicked her other shoe off at Wade Barrett, who was hit in the sternum.

Dazed and utterly shocked at the barbarism that came out so suddenly from the lovely commentator, the Nexus stepped aside and let her pick up Heidi's flaccid body. A choking sob went up, the most heartbroken sound the ring had ever heard as Lily gathered the Hellcat's head into her lap and brushed the bloody hair off her face.

There was no movement under her eyes. The gash, which was bleeding steadily, cut across the Hellcat's forehead and well into her hairline it seemed, as Lily stripped off her jacket and went to press it against the Hellcat's headwound, trying to stop the bleeding, too preoccupied with tending to Heidi to bother with killing the six men in the ring with her.

Lily was absolutely agog when someone pulled Heidi away from her, leaving her kneeling in the ring with a blood-stained white pantsuit, looking up as a red smear covered the ring. Husky Harris had grabbed his baby sister's ankle and tugged her away from Lily's caring touch.

"Give her back to me," she ordered, her voice soft, like a mother berating a child during a church service, eyes promising hellfire unless he complied.

Husky however, did not.

He gathered Heidi into his arms and picked her up, like a broken bride, her head falling limply over the side of his arm, blonde curls running with blood now. He backed slowly away from Lily, who was getting to her feet, absolutely trembling with fury.

"GIVE HER BACK TO ME!" she howled again, pointing a shaking hand to Husky.

Justin Gabriel, who was just barely bleeding from her shoe-attack, stood in front of Husky. Then Heath Slater. Then Michael McGillicutty, and finally David Otunga, creating an impenetrable wall so that Husky Harris could jump out of the ring, holding his injured sister to his body.

As the biggest of the Nexus, no one was better chosen to then start backing up the ramp towards the backstage with dramatic steps, the crowd booing and hissing. The arena was turning into a mob, with people throwing things at Husky as he slowly disappeared backstage, taking the Hellcat out of sight.

Lily was crying by now, for any number of reasons, but her tears were dignified. Slow. Quiet. She watched as one by one, the members of the Nexus left the stage until she was alone in the ring, with Swagger still lying unconscious on the floor next to a smeared pool of Heidi's blood, looking up to Wade Barrett.

The Brit merely tutted and shook his head, lifting the microphone he'd screamed at a referee for as Husky had been escorting Hellcat to an undisclosed location.

"The next time you see the Nexus, I expect you all to be very welcoming to our newest member... the Hellcat!"

And then, with a stare so hard it could have cloven rock in two, Wade dropped the microphone into the pool of blood. With his eyes trained on Lily, he hopped from the ring and started walking with his arms outstretched, like some sort of mockery of a god, until he disappeared backstage with the rest of the Nexus and their newest member... Heidi.

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**Right? RIGHT? I know you love it. Tell me. Read and review, please!**


	13. Either Nexus Or Against Us

MWAHAHAH! Glad you're back for more of the Hellcat. Things aren't going as expected, eh? Glad to keep you and her on her toes. Prepare for happy-fun-times.

And thanks to Jade, my cousin, who draws me awesome pictures and keeps the creative juices flowing when I need them.

**Go check out her devART: **Her name is** Voltenia**

She has pictures of Heidi called "Victory Hug," "Heidi 'Hellcat' Harris," and "Silly Heidi." There will be a new picture up of her in her Nexus garb in the next few days so check her out, YO!

* * *

Heidi hugged her knees to her chest in the tub. The water was still freshly hot with tendrils of steam hugging the surface and the suffocating sensation in her mouth that made it feel as if she couldn't fill her lungs enough. Her hair lay over both shoulders, covering her chest, and was still lurid with the deep ruby of dried blood.

The wound on her head had been bandaged by someone while she was knocked out and had long since stopped bleeding. It was the only clean part of her, ironically enough, and she ventured a small poke with her fingertips that only caused her to hiss an expletive through gritted teeth.

She was shut in the bathroom. The tub's curtain was drawn and she wasn't entirely certain, but she was pretty sure the room outside her shut and locked door belonged to Wade Barrett and some of the other Nexus.

Trapped. Like a wild animal. She'd been leashed like a dog... she was part of the Nexus.

To make matters worse, Heidi wasn't alone in the bathroom. Sitting on the lid of the toilet with his elbows on his knees, was Husky. His beady eyes were fixed on the blood that stained the skin of his bicep and was clotting in the crease of his elbow. The match had ended only a few hours ago and he had gotten no peace since the fiasco.

Kidnapping Heidi had been part of the plan from the beginning and he had warned them all that it would only end in bloodshed.

What he hadn't expected was for the blood to be hers.

He had overestimated her, a cardinal sin for an elder brother. He had been so confident that she would be able to escape like the last time she'd seen all the Nexus in the ring, that first debut she had where she'd marched in a chucked her shoe at Wade's skull.

And even though she was all right and didn't require stitches, he couldn't help but feel the worst he'd felt in a long time. When he had picked her up she hung there like a dead person, and when he made his way backstage he was actually taking her to safety. He knew that Lily would never forgive him for what he'd done but something inside awoke at the sight of Heidi like that. Bloody and obviously helpless.

That something reminded him of home, and childhood, and how he and Heidi used to get along before he'd left.

It was part of the reason he was there with her now. Well that, and if any of the other Nexus tried to get close to her while she was cleaning herself would end badly and that was a fight he knew she wouldn't lose.

"Are you still awake in there?" he asked, his voice deep but cracked. He hadn't heard the water slosh at all and hoped she hadn't lost consciousness. It would lead to having to peak behind the shower curtain to make sure she wasn't drowning in bloody water.

Heidi sighed and leaned against the warm porcelain behind her.

"Don't worry, your newest prisoner hasn't found a way to escape yet but mark my words, she's trying."

The silence from the other side of the shower curtain told Heidi that she had put him in his place. She could almost see the look on his face if she shut her eyes and tried to focus it, but she didn't want to imagine him anymore. His betrayal was complete. Had he not pinned her to his chest then Heath Slater never would have been able to break that chair over her head. He was the real villain here.

"Heidi, I thought this was what you wanted," he said after a moment, looking down at his hands as he spoke. "We're a part of the same family. We're together again."

"We are not a part of the same family! How could you even call those guys your family?" she bellowed, her voice ricocheting off the tile and porcelain to sound twice as loud and magnify her tremulous notes. "You know how family acts, don't tell me you've forgotten. No, they are not my family, they're my _wardens_, and you, you are the_ worst of them all_, Husky! How could you _do_ that?"

Husky sighed heavily; the sound of a hundred dreams deflating, and shook his head. How little they understood each other these days.

"Well what did you want me to do, Heidi? You stuck your nose into the ring, you're not allowed to be mad when you get hurt!" he countered, though the rebuttal sounded weak even to him.

Heidi glared at the shower curtain as she started combing her fingers through her hair, the blood coming out easily as she worked her fingers through the clotting mess.

"Oh I dunno, maybe not hold me down like a pig at the rodeo and let some clown beat a chair over my _FACE!"_ she barked back.

"The chair wasn't part of the plan. That was Lily – "

"Did I just hear you blame Lily for my head-wound?"

"NO!" Husky finally shouted, his voice booming like a bass drum, coming out so suddenly that Heidi actually jumped and her snarky comment died on her tongue.

She slunk down into the water, submerging herself completely to rake her hands through her locks. When she came back up she saw the bandage floating in front of her, becoming bloated and diluted from its crimson color with the hot bath water. Looking up as if she could see the cut, Heidi inspected it with ginger fingers again. The scab was forming nicely it seemed, and the blood was out of her hair.

The two of them sat in silence for another handful of moments. It was how they acknowledged that the other person had a point since both were too stubborn and proud to let "you're right, I was wrong" come out of their traps. No, no, the Harris siblings simply shut up for a little while around each other, slowly digesting the painful truth until one of them made a comment totally off topic.

This time, it was Heidi.

"Well are you going to get me some shampoo or what? I smell like an armpit."

Husky, who had been all but certain that Heidi would never talk to him again, was surprised that she made the first move towards civility. So he had said something sobering – well that was unexpected. Even when he was dead right, Heidi was usually the last person to admit it.

The relief that flooded his being was not missed on Husky and he found himself standing quickly, walking over to the vanity to pick up a blue bottle and inspect the writing. It was all in French but with the matching bottle next to it he was pretty certain it was a shampoo and conditioner set.

"Here," he said as he slipped only his hand behind the curtain, handing her the two bottles one after the other. "It's Slater's. I figure he owes you."

Heidi took them and couldn't help but grin softly. That was as close as Husky would ever get to admitting what had happened was wrong, and for the time being, she would consider that a step in the right direction.

"Hey, what about soap?" she shouted after him as she heard his footsteps leading him towards the door.

"Oh yeah," he said, digging his massive hand into a basketful of designer soaps. With a smirk, he picked up the pinkest, girliest soap he could find and sniffed it. Strawberry. Perfect. "Here you go," he said as he tossed it over the shower curtain.

"OW!" Heidi yelped as the bar donked her on the head and then slid into the water. She reached for it and picked up the offending magenta projectile. "Thanks for nothing, dirtbag," she insulted.

Husky grinned. Only he could truly appreciate the tone of her voice that assured him she was smirking.

Heidi was not smirking however when it came time to get out of the bath. She had dawdled out of pure defiance since she could hear voices on the other side of the wall, voices that belonged to the Nexus, her lousy captors. They had left her alone and laid out the bandages on the counter for her but Heidi was less inclined to believe that gesture came from their altruistic hearts.

Husky probably had something to do with that.

As she stepped onto the plush bath mat and wrapped herself with a towel, a thought struck Heidi: the only clothes she had were drenched in blood, sweat, and tears. Her uniform was lying in an unsightly pile in the middle of the floor and she was not about to put it back on again.

She lamented the loss of her uniform for a moment, picking it up to see the brilliant silver lose its luster next to the punch of red that covered the front. Assessing the damage, Heidi let the garments drop and dashed to the mirror to look at her cut, leaning over the counter to put her face right next to her reflection.

A red line dashed across her forehead diagonally, stopping just above her eyebrow and then disappearing into her hair on the other side. From the way it had bled Heidi had assumed the damage to be much worse than it was but couldn't help but shrug at what she found. She should have known that, of course, but waking up to 6 grown men leering over you with bandages and towels covered in blood had clouded her judgement.

Heidi opted not to wear the band-aids or medical pads left there for her, figuring that if she was enough of a woman to survive a Nexus beatdown that she didn't need to feel like a baby with a boo-boo on her noggin. She appraised her reflection again, and nodded.

Groaning, she looked around as if hoping a trap door would appear in the middle of the floor and save her from having to go out into the room where the evil Nexus were waiting. Despite her mixed feelings over Husky, Heidi was positive how she felt about the rest of them: they were dogs of the lowest variety, even if they were smart enough to rove in a pack.

She thumped her fist on the door but kept it locked.

"Is someone gonna get me some clothes are are you all perverts on _top_ of being pricks?" she hollered at the top of her lungs, folding her arms over the towel in preparation for some verbal repartee.

The door then rattled mightily as someone large and angry pounded from the other side, startling Heidi for a split second before she regained her composure and flipped her hair over her shoulder as if she hadn't just actually been surprised.

"You'll find your new uniform in a bag underneath the sink, _pipsqueak,_" Wade replied, his accent coloring each word with condescension.

Curling her lip and mocking Wade by mouthing "pipsqueak" with her head swaying back and forth, Heidi knelt and found the bag in question. It was a black bag with the yellow "N" on it and she rolled her eyes as she grabbed it and turned it over.

The garments that spilled out gave her pause though, and she shook the bag a bit to see if any more were about to fall from it. She turned the bag upright and stuffed her hand inside, groping around to see if there were perhaps a pair of pants that the garments were missing.

"What kind of prank are you trying to pull?" she grilled, her voice cranky as she kicked the garments around to see if they looked bigger spread apart.

A big, snide, bellowing laughter erupted from the other side of the door and Heidi looked over her shoulder, scowling.

"Put it on and get used to it," he said, punctuating his order with a heavy fist on the door that caused it to rattle. "Unless you want to miss dinner and stay in there, naked, forever."

Howling with rage, Heidi shouted a few of her favorite swears at the door. The creep was right! She had no clothes anymore unless she wanted to put on her disgusting uniform that she was certain the Nexus weren't going to launder for her. It was either a long, dirty road... or a very black and yellow one.

Heidi looked at the clothes again and shook her head, laughing humorlessly. There on the floor was a pair of black shorts that looked more like something one of the divas should wear along with a black top that barely looked larger than a sports bra. On the tush of her shorts was the enormous "N", and the center of her sports bra boasted the "N" as well. The only other garments in the bag were a pair of black elbow pads and knee pads, and of course, the Nexus arm band.

Cursing them all the way, Heidi reluctantly pulled on her uniform one piece at a time until she stood in front of the mirror with a scowl.

Unlocking the door, she threw it open and stormed out into the middle of the room on bare, clammy feet that stuck a little on the carpet. Her eyes panned left then right until she saw Wade Barrett sitting on his bed with his back up against the headboard, pillows behind him, with a pair of reading glasses on the end of his nose and a newspaper in front of him.

"What is the meaning of this?" she barked, gesticulating to her uniform with wild, emphatic flailing. "It's winter outside and we're in _New England!_ I don't know the first thing about your _old_ crummy England, but here, we don't parade around like slutty freaks during the coldest months of the year!"

Wade looked up, as if he were a father dealing with a petulant child, and removed his glasses.

"Oh have some decorum, will you? You should consider yourself lucky the 'N' wasn't done in sequins," he shot back at her, obviously pleased to have gotten under her skin so easily, even if he didn't appreciate her outright bravado.

"You don't look like a slut," Justin Gabriel said from behind her, his accent much less harsh than Barrett's. It was subtle and playful, somehow elegant and exotic at the same time.

Heidi whipped her head around to pin a glare right in Gabriel's face.

"Oh really? Well gee, I'm so glad to know _you_ don't think I look trashy! Where would I be without the opinion of Mr. Tacky-Blue-Shiny-Boots?" Heidi snapped sarcastically.

Standing next to Gabriel was Heath Slater, who was just as stunned as his South African friend at the Hellcat's volatile temper. Husky simply sat at the couch flipping through the channels, shaking his head with a knowing smile.

He had tried to warn them.

"Don't listen to her Justin," Heath piped up in his teammate's defense, giving Heidi a look like she'd just skinned the last baby seal.

"YOU!" Heidi cried, turning completely around. In the next seconds, her feet worked of their own accord, moving quickly from a starting position like she was in a track meet to an all out sprint that had her leaping into the air and tackling Heath to the ground. She landed on top of him and her fingers made their way around his neck in record time, where she began to thrash up and down, beating his red head against the carpet time and time and time again, all the while grinning like a maniac at the stunned expression on his face.

How Wade got to her first, Heidi never found out, but he pulled her off of the One-Man Rock Band and threw her to the floor some feet away to scrape her knees on the carpet. Heath stood up thanks to Justin and waved off the concerned looks by holding up his hand and fixing his hair.

"I'm fine," he confirmed.

"Give. Me. A t-shirt. Now." she stressed each word heavily, speaking to the ground as her wet hair created a curtain around her face.

Husky, who was the only person unaffected by his sister's outburst, grabbed a t-shirt from the back of the couch and tossed it at her.

Wade, Justin, and Heath looked at Husky in disbelief. The looks were lost on him though, and he simply resumed his attention on the television.

Seeing the shirt come sailing towards her, Heidi snatched it like a starving man would a potato and yanked it on. It was remarkably large on her, a dress more than a shirt, but it came down to her thighs, which was more than she could say for her hideous shorts. However, when she stood up, the relieved look on her face vanished as she looked down and saw the yellow "N" on the front of her shirt.

When she glared at Husky this time, he was ready for it, and met her with a cheeky grin.

"Family Heidi. Family!" he called out in a dramatic voice, lifting his arm into the air in a fist.

Wade then cleared his throat and Heidi looked back at him. He was flanked on either side by Slater and Gabriel and to her horror, the door behind him opened and Michael McGillicutty entered, followed by David Otunga. The rooms were obviously joined, just a benefit of being WWE superstars, she supposed.

"Oookay, who ordered the hooker?" Michael asked, laughing at his own joke as everyone except Wade Barrett joined in the mirth. David Otunga gave him a fist bump and then looked down at Heidi.

_"DON'T_ call me a hooker," she demanded, pointing a threatening finger at Michael. Wade however grabbed her hand and yanked her closer, holding her wrist over her head so that she was close enough to see up his crooked, disfigured nostrils.

"Welcome to the Nexus, Heidi Harris," he sneered. The rest of them agreed with grins, chuckling to one another as she tried to wrest herself away from Wade's superior grip. Her fight or flight instincts were starting to kick in and she was about to knee the Brit in the nuts when she felt a soothing hand on her shoulder.

Just as soon as Wade had grabbed her, he let her go, looking into Husky's face as he stood behind his sister. The two of them had a silent moment, with Heidi volleying her eyes back and forth between them to see what exactly was being said in those seconds that stretched obscenely long.

Then the tension was broken and Husky blinked.

"I told you she was going to be a pistol. If you want her obedience then you'd better earn her respect or else she'll defy you every step of the way," he said, looking down to Heidi for a moment and then back to the rest of his teammates. They just didn't understand her. Breaking her spirit would be impossible. They would be better to kill her with kindness and cause her a crisis of conscience.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell them that.

Wade nodded curtly and put his arms around Heath and Justin on either side of him.

"Boys, you have your work cut out for you here. Until Ms. Harris is accustomed to our Nexus ways – "

"You mean _brainwashed!"_ Heidi interrupted, but Wade just overpowered her voice with his own.

"You two will be in charge of keeping her in line and making sure she doesn't escape," Wade finished.

They nodded, accepting their charge with stoicism, watching Heidi as if they'd just been told to take care of a rattlesnake. However they exchanged looks with one another and drew strength from their power in numbers.

Heidi was less than convinced that anyone was going to keep her from escaping, however, and on an impulse, made a dash towards the door. Her small size and superior speed should have her smelling freedom in no time at all – she'd be out of the door and could run up or down the stairs to find Lily's room and put on her real clothes.

Alas, as fine a plan as it was, she was outmatched against the tag-team handiwork of Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel. Heath tripped her by sticking his foot out and Justin launched himself into the air to land with catlike grace on Heidi's backside, sitting on her back to pin her to the ground.

"DAMNIT!" Heidi shouted, supporting her chin on her hand as she looked hatefully towards the door, no more than 3 feet from her reach.

The Nexus, who had apparently not been prepared for her vehement attempts at slaughter and vagabond, looked on, impressed and uneasy. Having the Hellcat around was going to mean a lot more work for the rest of them. That much was almost certain, but especially for Justin and Heath.

Wade watched the spectacle with no more interest than he would watch a round of golf.

"Fine work. I'll expect you all at the gym in the morning, dressed for the occasion," he added, eyeing Heidi as he settled himself back onto his bed and picked up his paper.

"Uhm, where am I supposed to stay?" Heidi asked hypothetically once Justin had removed himself from her person. "Surely you're not going to lock me up in here with all of you!" she said, looking around for some sort of consensus from the rest of them. "I mean... I snore! And fart in my sleep! And uhh... my period is coming soon and stuff!" she said somewhat frantically, racking her brain to think of the most uncomfortable woman ailments she possibly could.

Husky just laughed on the couch, sitting next to Otunga who seemed somewhat less than thrilled to have a girl staying with them now.

Michael McGillicutty answered her question for her when he came from the closet wielding a cot. He lay it down on the floor behind the couch and slammed a pillow in the middle of it.

"You'll sleep there," he explained unnecessarily as he wrenched the blankets off the back of a recliner and tossed them onto the cot as well.

"Great," Heidi mumbled, glaring at them all. "Just great."


	14. A Call to Arms

Mwahaha, the journey continues. Remember to read and review! HELLCAT CONTINUES!

**Miserychick** - you have been a faithful reader and reviewer. Thanks, dollface!

* * *

It took a full day of cancelled meetings, pajamas, movies on Lifetime, and about 300 cups of coffee for Lily to pull herself from her funk and formulate a plan to get Heidi back. Like any woman, she had allowed herself the time to grieve and have a good cry (or ten) before coming out on the other end of her sorrow with a plan that she was sure wouldn't fail.

Or at least one she hoped wouldn't.

But sitting around had done nothing but waste her time. Ashamed, she asked herself what Heidi would have done if the roles were reversed and Lily had been the one taken away, beaten and bloody. The mental image of Heidi throttling the Nexus one by one was enough to start her engines again and really get the juices flowing.

Sitting in a lavish waiting room, Lily tapped her kitten heels impatiently as she preened the black and white polka dot skirt out of reflexive anxiety. Her hair was down and crimped, gathered into a low ponytail that draped over one shoulder. There were no other clients waiting in the reception area with her so that only the tick of the chrome clock and the tap of her shoes kept her company.

On her lap was a WWE magazine, and on the cover, was the Hellcat in full Nexus regalia, glaring at the camera as Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater stood in the background like faithful watchdogs. She had dogeared a few pages and in her white purse was a highlighter that she had used to outline every incorrect statement and bit of untrue gossip she'd found in the offending article.

Lily had stumbled across the magazine when she stopped at an outdoor newspaper stand to purchase a cappuccino and nearly choked on her coffee upon seeing Heidi on the front cover. She snatched it and began leafing through pages like a thief in a library to finally find the article in question, throwing a handful of bills at the vendor and then dashing off down the street with her head so deep in the magazine that she accidentally bumped people without even apologizing.

And once she had come to the end of the piece that somehow spun Heidi in both poor and favorable lighting, Lily almost dropped the magazine when she read who the author was.

Percy Lancaster.

When the frosted glass door opened, Lily sat up straight and watched with modest disdain as Percival stepped into the doorway, his simpering grin intact as he greeted her as if the two were the oldest of friends.

"Ahh, Ms. Stark! Come in, come in. I imagine I know what you're here about," he twittered, standing to the side and holding his arm back towards his office to usher ladies in first. His salt and pepper hair was slicked back still, moustache and triangle-beard meticulously groomed to offset the playful pink paisley tie he had tucked into a sharp silver-grey vest.

Lily, ever the politician, stood politely and smoothed her skirt before grabbing her purse and elegantly sashaying into Percy's office. Once inside, she took a cursory look around, her face passive to give the impression that she was not dazzled by the state of the place. Like everything Percy touched, he had his own flare in every corner that was somehow distinctly flamboyant and elegant. The wooden desk was of the deepest mahogany, polished to reflect the light coming in from an entire wall of windows that showcased the NYC skyline to perfection.

Percy shut the door and offered her a plush seafoam green chair before taking it's partner on the other side of a claw-footed coffee table with a crystal pitcher of water in the exact center.

Lily sat and tried to ignore the enormous framed photographs by Georgia O'Keeffe on his walls.

Making himself comfortable, Percy poured two glasses of water and situated one in Lily's reach before leaning back and taking a drink. He let out a satisfied "ahh" when he was through with his gulp and then dabbed his lips daintily with a handkerchief with P.L. embroidered on it in lavender stictching.

"You're a long way from home, Ms. Stark. Could it be that my article was so well written you simply had to come see me in person?" he mused, his tone serious, but the twinkle in his eyes was unmistakeably cheeky.

Lily, who had caught a red-eye flight from the midwest to be there for their early morning appointment, was not as ruffled as she might have been had she the proper sleep to muster up an appropriate anger. However, she did not look like she had spent the entire night awake, pouring over the article at hand, highlighting and writing her counterattack on bits of airplane napkins between packages of peanuts and glasses of ginger ale. As ever, she was polished, pristine, and professional.

Clearing her throat slightly, Lily turned the magazine around so that the cover faced Percy, who simply chuckled in delight at seeing it.

"I know, a front page story! That Heidi is going to make all of us rich," he said, dabbing his eyes as if he'd just seen the Mona Lisa and was moved by the beauty of it.

"Percival, I am not here to praise your work," she reprimanded with calm sternness as she fitted a pair of tortoiseshell Vogue frames on the tip of her powdered nose. Opening the magazine to one of the dogeared pages, she read aloud. "Heidi Harris has been seen in the company of the Nexus for the past several days, accompanying them to restaurants, boxing matches, and the gym."

She stopped reading and looked at Percy, who was staring into space as she read his words aloud, appreciating them as if they were Shakespearean prose.

"Well don't stop there, that's not even the good part!" he squawked, setting his glass of water down on the coffee table and giving Lily a look that said 'well go on!'

Instead, Lily flipped to another page and read from a block of pink highlighted text.

"The Hellcat has been seen mostly with Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, asking the question, are she and Husky on good terms after Monday's macbre finale, or has she turned over her brother for the dual affections of the tag-team duo?"

Percy sighed at the pure poetry that regaled his distinguished ears, a wistful smile on his slightly lined face. "You know, that Hellcat is getting to be quite the heartbreaker. I wouldn't be surprised if Swagger has a thing or two to say about being shunned for not one man, but two!"

"Percy!" Lily snapped, removing her glasses and looking at him with reproach. "I can assure you that Heidi is not involved with Swagger, Slater, or Gabriel. They must be her guardians, keeping her on a short leash or something," she huffed, remembering her manners and settling back down into her chair, her voice once again at an appropriate volume.

Percy Lancaster simply shrugged his shoulder with a decadent grin on his face. "Only time and the press will be able to speculate on that one, Ms. Stark. Unless you'd care to stage an interview spilling all the intimate details?" he urged, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows up and down once.

Lily tutted. "I think not."

"Such a shame," he lamented, swooning back dramatically in his chair, gripping the armrests with spindly fingers. "So I presume you are not here to chide me in person for a journalist's colorful liberty with your friend. What is it you want, Ms. Stark?" he asked, this time seriously, watching her with pale blue eyes.

Holding her glasses with a hand on her knee, Lily leaned forward.

"Where were these pictures taken?" she asked, holding open the magazine to show the candid shots of Heidi in a Nexus uniform that looked more risque than her bathing suit in tow with the Nexus. She flipped the page and there was a photo of her in-between Slater and Gabriel who were holding her wrists tightly, like parents helping a child across the street. There was still some snow on the ground in places, and in those photos, Heidi was seen with an enormous Nexus t-shirt on and a pair of yellow spandex pants, a truly hideous combination, Lily thought.

Percy leaned forward and took the magazine, scrutinizing the photos by looking down his nose and adjusting the distance from his face as he tried to read without his glasses. After a moment, he set the magazine down in his lap and looked sidelong at Lily.

"Do you mean to tell me that you haven't seen Heidi since Monday?" he asked in disbelief.

Lily's eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to answer that until you promise not to write about it," she warned. Then, with a small smile, she reached beside her and pulled from her purse a stack of papers that were stapled in the corner. She handed them to Percy for him to read over. "I need your help, Percy, and I promise it will be a bigger story than these two bit gossip columns you've been doing."

Percy took the papers and began to read and then laughed, high-pitched and full of joy again. "Ms. Stark, a binding contract? Oh, you are good."

* * *

Heidi stood in line at the grocery checkout with her arms folded loosely over her chest, appearing more bored these days than angry. In front of her, with their street clothes on, were David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty. Behind her, also in normal attire, were Wade Barrett and Husky, who was somewhat standing guard of Heidi and for her. Next to her, wearing jeans and t-shirts without the yellow "N" were Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel, who had practically glued themselves to her sides for the past several days.

Heidi stood out like a sore thumb. If she weren't flanked on all sides by men twice her size, the yellow pants and oversized Nexus t-shirt she wore was a reminder that this capture was a lesson in humiliation. Wade hadn't allowed her to use the phone, or to try and contact anyone in any way shape or form. Heath and Justin escorted her everywhere and as Wade saw the rekindling relationship between brother and sister, he found more and more duties for Husky to fulfill just to keep Heidi away from him.

The trip to the grocer's was as much a statement for the press as it was a necessity for dinner. To Heidi's surprise, Otunga had a talent for cooking and had offered to prepare dinner that night in exchange for no more takeout pizzas and delivery Chinese that had dominated their diets.

Heidi kept it to herself but was glad to see that he put fish on the menu, as she stood there holding seven filets of the finest Alaskan salmon. With a chuckle, she thought about Swagger and what he would think about her diet as of late. "MORE PROTEIN SHAKETH, HELLCAT! YOU'RE DEFLATING!"

Giggling softly to herself, Justin Gabriel looked down to her suddenly and watched, wondering if she was going to share what was so funny.

Heidi looked up at the same time Justin looked down and stared back with wide, blank eyes. Out of all of the Nexus, she and her 'babysitters' as Wade called them, had managed to hash out a working relationship that kept all three of them out of trouble. But of the two, Heidi had to admit that she enjoyed Gabriel's accent better, not to mention his propensity to talk a lot less than the One Man Rock Band.

"I feel like a kid with too many dads," she lied in response to Gabriel's wondering eyes, rolling her eyes behind her, where Wade stood with his arms folded over his chest. It was true, and it was definitely better than telling the truth – that the thought of Jack Swagger had made her giggle. She shuddered and stepped closer as David and Michael, the lid to her box, moved up in line.

"Hey Heidi, looky here! It's the second one of you this week!" Heath exclaimed, turning and grabbing something from the checkout aisle. Even though she liked Justin better, Heidi and Heath had bonded over hair, which he took the liberty of straightening for her every day along with his own.

Heidi turned her head, still holding the fillets of salmons, and nearly dropped the seven cuts of fish when she saw a picture of herself on the front page of the magazine Slater had grabbed from the rack. Her mouth dropped as she saw yet again, her face glaring at her from the front page of a WWE magazine, which was better than she could say for the last article, which had her painted to look like some harlot diva. The picture was better too, a closeup that showed more freckle than flesh.

"It's the last one! These must be selling like crazy!" he said, flipping it open to a large centerfold picture of Heidi in her Nexus outfit, glaring at the camera. He tilted the magazine to show Justin, who laughed and patted Heidi on the back as they all leaned close and read the caption.

"Hellcat, better known as Heidi Harris, has been forced to give up her vigilante ways and join the deplorable Nexus, as shown by the way she has shunned her silver getup for the Nexus colors of black and yellow..." The three of them read in unison, a strange ruckus with all the different accents going on.

"Deplorable?" Justin asked, looking at Heath.

"Shunned?" Heath added, confused.

"Vigilante?" Heidi repeated, liking the sound of that on her tongue.

"Give me that!" snapped Wade. He snatched the magazine from Heath and turned it to the beginning of the article, his eyes roving the text. Surely it wouldn't be such big news for her to be a part of the Nexus – even John Cena had been a member of the Nexus and not created so much controversy! The brat had been a member for less than a week and already there were magazines boasting her on the front page?

"What is it?" Husky asked, looking over his burly bicep to read the title of the article, which was printed in bright red ink.

Hellcat, a Call to Arms.

"A call to arms?" Michael asked as he put the mushrooms, sour cream, gouda, and grapes onto the conveyor belt and then grabbed the rest of the items from his teammates as they were all hellbent on looking at the magazine. The cashier rang up the items one by one and the box around Heidi broke as they squashed her in the middle of all of them, trying to see better what the magazines could possibly have to say about her.

"They're making her out to be a bloody martyr!" Wade griped as the article went on, ignoring the scowl he earned from Heidi by speaking about her as if she weren't less than 6 inches away from him.

"Ha! It's payback, Wade," Heidi countered, turning around to face the cashier with her nose in the air. "You got the mean one about be two days ago, it's about time I had someone rally to my defense! You'd better watch out too if it's trying to get people to come get me out of the Nexus!"

Wade glared a pair of holes in the back of Heidi's head and paid the tab, leaving Otunga, Husky, and McGillicutty to carry the groceries.

"There won't be any 'out of the Nexus' for you, Harris," promised Wade as he squeezed her shoulder hard and pulled her back to walk with him as the rest of the Nexus surged ahead of them as they exited the grocer's and started walking back to the hotel. Heidi winced as his strong fingers dug into her bones and complied with the unspoken demand that she stay next to him. He had purchased the magazine as well and was flipping through it as he walked, barrelling through people like a human battering ram. Heidi walked beside him, arms swinging gaily at her sides, taking two steps for every one he took just to keep up.

"You just watch, Wade. I might be here for now but that won't always be the case," she replied seriously. She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stood her ground, waiting for Wade to realize that his tiniest lapdog wasn't heeling anymore.

Wade looked up, around, and then behind him to see Heidi standing defiantly. His lip curled. She was getting smarter every day, becoming hip to his game as it were, and learning ways around his tyrannical reign over the Nexus and therefore, her. Afraid of losing her, he was forced to come to her side instead of the other way around, especially now that they were in public and he couldn't get away with blatantly manhandling her.

"Listen here, half-wit. You and your brother belong to me now. You're either Nexus or against us and I don't care how long it takes, or how much I have to put up with your prattle before you resign to your fate, but you are Nexus. Everyone who sees you knows it. Your brother sees it, and unless you want to kiss him goodbye for the rest of your natural born life, then I'd suggest carrying your weight and getting used to it."

He then thrust the magazine into Heidi's arms and guided her with a hand on the back of her neck, like a master would a disobedient mongrel.

* * *

After the article Lily had commissioned Percy to pen hit the stands, the memories of his earlier commentary in another WWE magazine were all but forgotten. Everything about the newer article was better than the old one, and most of all, Lily had steered Percy to use his powers of persuasion for good instead of evil. After the contract was signed stating his salary and what information he was allowed to use, Lily had subjected herself to the longest interview in history, giving her firsthand account of the fiasco on RAW.

Percy had changed both of their names and blurred the picture of Lily so that it looked like a fan had given the interview instead of a deeply invested friend of the Hellcat's. And of course, Lily was a fan, but if the Nexus were going to play dirty then so was she. Instead of Lily, the interview was given by a woman named 'Rose,' and he used the penname of 'Lance Persimmon' instead of his usual Percy Lancaster.

When the weekly rag hit the stands, they were hardly able to keep them stocked long enough to get the next shipment.

"Hellcat, a Call to Arms," Lily read the headline aloud as she walked by a periodical stand on her way back to the hotel from a long radio interview, looking at the closeup of Heidi's scowl. Her freckles and disdain were as piercing as her green eyes. The tall brunette picked up a copy and paid the vendor with four crisp bills, telling him to keep the change as she tucked the magazine into her purse and then clicked down the street, the bounce returning to her step.

That night, Lily treated herself to a night out. Even if she was alone, there was no reason she couldn't enjoy a celebratory dinner in Heidi's honor. If the pictures were any indication then Heidi was fit as a fiddle with little more than a scratch on her forehead, so Lily lifted her glass of pomegranate juice into the air, toasting both Heidi's health and her own stroke of genius.

She ordered the foie gras and complimented the waiter in perfect French for his service as he lay the dish in front of her. Her napkin covered her perfectly white slacks and she picked up the correct fork and knife to begin addressing her food when she heard a disturbance at the front of the restaurant.

Looking up, her hair out of the way in an elaborate do of twists, braids, and pins, Lily was stunned to see Jack Swagger arguing with the maître d'. Swagger was dressed nicely in a pair of grey slacks and a blue silk shirt, but his size and demeanor put him out of place immediately in the crowd of posh, uppity snobs that attended fancy French restaurants. A number of patrons looked at him with disgust, wondering clearly what the maître d' was doing by not calling security to remove him from the grounds at once.

Lily watched for a moment more until she saw that Jack was plainly motioning towards her, as if he were trying to join her table and the staff wouldn't allow him.

Dabbing her lips unnecessarily, Lily scooted her chair back and stood up curiously. She walked around the the tables between her and the front of the restaurant and placed a polite hand on the maître d's forearm, shutting him up completely.

"Excuse me, monsieur," she interrupted, ever a vision of class. The maître d' turned his attention on her completely, smiling at her in her leopard print ruffle top. He was a short, squat man with a full head of auburn hair and a rotund belly that suggested he ate as much French food as he denied riffraff like Swagger the pleasure of.

"Of course, mademoiselle. What can I do for you?" he asked, standing up straighter when he saw that he was in the company of a lady, showing the stuffed shirt blonde American in front of him how to act in the presence of a woman.

Lily smiled kindly and gestured to Swagger with a slight flick of her bangled wrist.

"This gentlemen is a friend of mine. If there aren't any tables left then he can join me at mine," she offered, though she looked at Swagger instead of the maître d' as she spoke, her eyes warning him that this was a favor she wouldn't forget.

The maître d' looked somewhat surprised, but then, as gentlemen do, he bowed to Swagger in apology.

"The mistake is mine, monsieur. Right this way," he apologized with due sincerity. Then he grabbed a menu and escorted Lily and Swagger to her table, placing the menu at the seat across from Lily's plate of cooling foie gras.

The maître d' pushed in Lily's chair for her and then disappeared to the podium again to angrily clap his hands in distress at a pair of dishwashers who were making more noise than he felt was allowed.

Sitting down and adjusting his yellow tie, Swagger looked around the place with that same stupid expression on his face that Lily had come to associate with him thinking.

Fanning the napkin back over the lap of her slacks, Lily started to cut up her food into manageable pieces, each swipe of the knife slicing through tender meat with precision.

"Have you theen Heidi?" Swagger asked after he placed his order for a glass of chardonnay and nothing else. He didn't plan to stay long. He sounded concerned, which was a tone she had never heard come from the All-American America's mouth, and caused Lily to look up from her plate at him after all of her food was divided into bite size pieces.

"No I have not. Why do you ask?" she pressed, setting her silverware down and folding her arms in front of her face, watching him with scrutiny.

Swagger pulled the newest magazine boasting Heidi's face on the cover from the inside of his shirt and lay it on the table.

"Becauth she'th been all over town with the Necthuth." He nodded down to the magazine and Lily was heartened to see that he had brought the new one, the call to arms with him, instead of the tripe Percy had first published. His arms were crossed over his chest and his jaw was set in a way that looked painful and stubborn.

Lily looked at the magazine and nodded before chewing a bite of liver.

"Well?" Swagger asked as he took the glass of wine from the waiter and had a gulp of it.

"Well what?" Lily countered, furrowing her brows at his gruff disposition. "If you're going to be rude I would be more than happy to resume my meal without you."

Biting his tongue seemed to pain him and he grimaced at her as he swallowed whatever rude retort was formulating. He opted to drink some more of his wine again, his fingers like sausages around the delicate stemware. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"A call to armth. I'm in."

Lily's fork clattered as it fell from her grasp and onto the table. Luckily she had eaten her bite or else the pristine white slacks of hers would have been ruined, but it did not stop her from jumping at the sound, apparently surprised that she had been taken so aback.

The intensity of his stare gave her pause and she picked up her fork and wiped it on her napkin, feeling somehow uncomfortable with Swagger looking at her so seriously.

She laughed nervously.

"Well I have to say that I'm impressed, Jack. I don't know why you wanted to interrupt my dinner to tell me this, but I am pleased nevertheless," she answered, offering him a fleeting smile and then taking a dainty sip of her pomegranate juice.

Swagger hiked an eyebrow as if he were dealing with a squirrely 6-year-old and laughed, looking around to see if anyone else got the joke. Arrogantly, he opened the article to the page of "Rose" in her blurry black and white dress and tapped his large, tan finger on it.

"You want to know why I'm here, 'Rothe?'" he asked hypothetically, calling her out on her bluff with such precision that Lily nearly choked on her juice. "I don't like loothing. Not to Barrett, not to the Necthuth, not to anyone."

Lily dabbed her lips on her napkin and decided to put her meal on hold for a few minutes longer now that the jig was up. She leaned forward and lowered her voice.

"Fine, you caught me, I gave the anonymous interview. And maybe if you had done your job and come out on time Heidi wouldn't have so hurt so badly and the Nexus wouldn't have taken her!" It was as clear an accusation as she would make.

Swagger's lip curled in obvious distaste but he swallowed his pride for as long as it would take to deal with the woman in front of him. She was so very much so unlike Heidi, who could take it if he wanted to push her around when she got on his nerves. Lily was always so immaculate and tidy that he had to rely on his words, which were never his strongest suit.

He nodded at long last and clasped his hands tightly on the top of the table, staring down at her.

"Tho you gave the interview. What next?" he urged haughtily, as if to say that she hadn't done enough.

Lily took another drink of the magenta juice and cleared her throat in as ladylike a fashion as she could.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yeth, you do. Did you talk to anyone elthe in the WWE? Have you thtarted to build a team, or mount your offenthe?"

Lily gave him a sharp look and shook her head. "No. That would ruin the point of giving an anonymous interview," she retorted, pleased with herself for having put that frown on his face.

Swagger just chuckled again, a cocky sound, and he swayed his head a little, reaching forward to spin his glass of wine in his fingertips.

"Tho I'm all you've got."

"You know," she said, leaning forward. "The only reason I let you join me was because of Heidi. If you're going to help then tell me what your plans are, if not, I'll have the maître d' escort you out of here like I should have let him do ten minutes ago!"

Swagger rolled his eyes and took another draw on his wine.

"I have been recruiting but there are thome thuperthtarth who are intimidated by thomeone like me," he answered.

Lily almost gagged and there wasn't even food in her mouth. Apparently the side of Swagger that Heidi got to see was different than the one he was showing her because if Heidi had heard any of Swagger's pomposity, Lily was pretty sure she'd tell him to can it.

"So you mean that you can only get jerks to rally to your cause? I think I actually believe you," she admitted, stabbing a bit of foie gras and then eating it before the whole plate went cold.

Jack cleared his throat and tried to find a clever way of saying "yes" without actually saying it.

"If you want guyth like Mythterio and Thena then you're going to have to athk them on behalf of Heidi. Meanwhile, I'll be gathering up the real winnerth who will do the job regardleth of the conthequentheth."

Lily eyed him suspiciously for a moment as she munched another chunk of her duck liver.

"Does this have anything to do with Heidi at all?" she asked guardedly.

Swagger lifted a brow, asking her to explain with body language alone.

"You've only mentioned that you hate losing. You haven't expressed any regret at all for not showing up to do your job and protect her!"

"FINE!" he boomed, voice like thunder on a sunny day, causing the chit-chat to cease entirely as the room's attention shifted to him. "I'm thorry I didn't come out with her, but I showed up ath you'll remember, and took a beating with a chair for her, tho don't tell me I don't care enough!"

Lily was shocked at the outburst from the blonde All-American and sat there, eyes open wide with her foie gras still on the end of her fork.

An elderly gent at a table next to theirs leaned over his patte and asked very politely if they couldn't "kindly keep it down."

Swagger, who had worked himself into a lather, turned his head at the nice old chap and promptly told him to "THTUFF IT!" Then, downing his glass of wine, he stood from the table and threw money down for his beverage. Eyeing Lily once with a look she couldn't interpret, Swagger then shoved his wallet back into his pocket and exited the building, almost knocking over a waiter on his way out.

"I am so sorry!" Lily apologized with her arm pressed to her chest to the old man, who was mumbling to his wife about the impropriety of youth these days. Her words had no affect on him however, and she finished her meal in silence, digesting more than just her foie gras.

* * *

**Review me! Please!**


	15. A Deal With the Devil

**WOAH, ok, I had no idea this damn thing was posting it in italics. Hopefully this fixes it.**

**CaptainB, Misery - you guys are total troopers. Thanks for sticking with the Hellcat this far! More to come, promise.**

**Voltenia, keep drawing! Your pictures help keep the juices flowing and keep the excitement alive.**

* * *

"I won't do it!" Heidi put her hands on her hips and planted her feet, like a brassy cactus, and stood at the opposite end of the practice ring.

Standing with their arms crossed on the front lines were Wade and Husky, who seemed to finally be united under one cause. Wade pinned the Hellcat with the same look of airy disgust that he gave to all pleasant things, but Husky's gaze was downright accusatory. He looked at her as if she had intentionally thrown him under the bus and was only seconds away from leaping across the ring and pinning her in any number of holds that he knew would make her submit.

It had become a showdown, a battle of wills the likes of which had not been seen since Heidi had become a part of the Nexus. Heidi was the very definition of defiance; her jaw set in a determined pout, eyes glaring just over the shaggy fringe of her bangs, and she did not budge an inch as Wade stepped closer.

"Just keep the fat unibrow from using the cobra!" Wade shouted in total exasperation. "You're too small to be any use against Kozlov but Santino is easily distracted. Stop him from finishing Husky you, you twit, or I'll – "

"BRING IT ON, YOU UGLY BRUISER!" Hellcat piped.

Watching from ringside, even though it was a practice match at a gym far away from the arena where the night's show was to take place, was the rest of the Nexus. Michael and Otunga were whispering to each other at one turnbuckle while Heath and Justin watched intently from the other, both pairs looking up at the spectacle with a sense of wonder stirring in their guts. It seemed as if both sides had forgotten exactly who they were facing.

In fact, for Heidi, that was exactly what had happened. Her eyes had been fogged, her judgement clouded from her main objective. As she defied Wade and her older brother there in the ring, the curl to her lip was directed at herself. She had lost sight of who she was, and it had been her own fault.

Seeing Husky had been too pleasant; hanging out with Slater and Gabriel had been less than traumatic; Otunga's cooking had been excellent, and Michael hadn't made another hooker joke since the first one. Even Wade treated her more like a wayward child than a sickening bit of garbage.

But it was all lies. Husky wasn't improving. He wasn't going to see the proverbial light, and Heidi knew now more than ever that she was losing her brother fast to the clutches of a monster she couldn't beat. A monster she had broken bread with, and trained with, and had held her captive from her loved ones for six whole days.

They had fooled her. Or worse, she had fooled herself. She had finally discovered Wade's game: he was going to use Husky like a pawn to leash her to the Nexus indefinitely. How she hadn't seen it coming was a part of the cold stone of rage she was holding inside. As much as she loathed Wade Barrett and all of the Nexus, Heidi was the most disappointed in herself for allowing the allure of family to fog her vision. Heidi had thrown away all of her gusto for a few happy meals with the runaway brother she so dearly missed. She had become a stranger to herself.

But the news of the night's match had been a gruff awakening. The frank slap of truth still stung but she stood there, pink-cheeked, with a renewed sense of purpose. They were asking her to betray more people, as if the betrayal to herself wasn't humiliating enough, and that was the straw that finally broke her back.

The match that night was a tag-team match: Husky and McGillicutty versus Santino and Kozlov. Heidi's role was simple – to keep Santino from giving Husky the cobra by any means necessary.

"What do you mean you won't do it?" Husky asked, his tone right on the edge of being very, very angry. Heidi knew that tone – it was the same tone he had used on any guy who tried to bother Lily even before they were dating, and it was that same tone that was going to stoke Heidi into new heights of rage.

"It's not a trick, Husky. I simply won't do it." she reiterated, shrugging her shoulder. It was as simple as that. "As far as I see it, I've already survived a beatdown from all of you so I'm not afraid of it. You can't bully me into doing what you want!"

Wade nodded sarcastically and slicked his palm over his hair, walking around to try and gather his wits.

Husky, however, was not finished.

"You've only got one job to do, Heidi! And it's for me, to keep me from getting hurt. Why won't you do it?" he asked, each word a dart. He couldn't help but step closer, bearing down over her like a fat, oily vulture, his beady eyes becoming crazed. He didn't understand it – Wade had given her the simplest task of all, the one they had all been certain she would execute without issue: to protect Husky.

"I AM AGAINST THE NEXUS! Not with you! You put yourself into the ring, Husky. Don't be mad when you get hurt," she echoed the excuse he had made to justify Slater breaking a chair over her head to great affect. Husky was dumbstruck for a second, just long enough for Wade to step in and keep Heidi's head from swelling after having earned the upper hand.

"You're against us then," Wade said with such finality that all members of the Nexus looked at him with shock. Admitting defeat had never been their leader's way, he was working an angle, surely...

"Yeah, I don't know why that comes as news but I will fight you tooth and nail every step of the way until you finally get sick of me and let me go!" she added, her voice booming throughout the deserted gymnasium.

Wade looked at her for a moment, his face guarded as he contemplated her measure.

"Fine. I'll make you a deal, Hellcat," he said at last. "You keep anyone from finishing Husky, and I'll give you your freedom."

It didn't take Heidi long to decide. She had to think long-term, and with her refreshed sense of self, the choice was simple.

"Deal." She stuck her hand out to shake, hoping to play on Wade's portended sense of decorum to keep his promise so long as they shook on it.

He watched her and then strut forward and gripped her hand, shaking it once.

After Heidi was gone and the Nexus were standing in the ring, watching her as she huffed away in her black trunks and t-shirt, Wade cut his eyes to Husky.

"You had better not lose this for us, Harris. And if he does, I expect one of the rest of you to beat Hellcat to the save. Do not let my end of the deal come to pass."

* * *

Heidi was the last of the Nexus to come down the ramp and she did so with a face so stony she looked like a study of loathing. She walked heavily, stomping down the aisle with her fists balled at her side, and even though she denied Wade the pleasure of watching her squirm, she hated how much skin her uniform showed. Even the song seemed to taunt her ("we are one...yeah right)as she came out to the regulatory chorus of boos that, frankly, she knew they all deserved. She was about to do something heinous that night, and they had no idea. Heidi was going to lie to them all for a week, all the fans, all the commentators, all the superstars... she was as far from herself as she could possibly get without a lobotomy.

And, just to rub it in her face, Wade had painted a black "N" on her cheek to signify that her transformation was complete.

When she made it to the apron around the ring, she folded her arms and leaned in a corner by the barricade, where a slew of teenagers were busily yelling obscenities at her that she tried to ignore. She couldn't bear to look at Lily, knowing that this was a slap in the face to her as well. Heidi had watched the footage of last week; she knew what Lily had tried to do.

"YOU SUCK, HELLCAT!" someone behind her screamed.

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" she shouted back, gripping the barricade and leaning forward to throw her words at him like rocks. The culprit was a fat teenager with curly blonde hair and his skinny, goth friend who just kept laughing and standing behind his meatier pal.

The zitty brats kept taunting her and Heidi snapped. She had already hiked a leg over the barrier and was about to land on her feet on the other side when she felt someone grab her foot and shoulder. Her concentration lost, she looked back to see Justin Gabriel shaking his head at her as he pulled her back to the apron.

"Save it for the ring, Hellcat," he said, looking at her with the smallest hint of suspicion in his eyes. Heidi straightened herself and pushed past Gabriel, shouldering him in the gut to stand on the other side of the ring, away from the kids.

Husky and Michael were already in the ring, getting loose and ignoring the calls from the audience for them to "go home."

"And their opponents, with a combined weight of 529 pounds, Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov!" the announcer declared. Seconds later, Santino came around the corner with Vladimir behind him, walking like a red brick wall, each step part of a determined journey that would lead him to the ring. Santino kind of danced the whole way up the ramp, bouncing from foot to foot and acting as if he were conducting a marching band with an arm moving up and down.

And of course, right behind the crowd's favorite tag-team duo, was Tamina, who gave Heidi a look of disappointment as she passed.

Heidi watched, her look unquestionably upset, as Tamina stood on the opposite side of the apron from her and the rest of the Nexus. She was crushed. Of all the divas, she respected none more than Tamina and the Glamazon, and had hoped to meet one before she left the WWE. Meeting Tamina while conspiring against her boyfriend was hardly the impression she wanted to make.

When the bell rang, Lily watched intently as Santino and McGillicutty rushed each other. Her body language was stiff and she made no mention of her concerns, but the occasional tug she gave to the purple scarf around her neck was enough to give her away.

"I don't know if I've seen a more even matchup than this right here, Santino and Michael McGillicutty!" Josh Matthews said excitedly – CM Punk was elsewhere that night. "McGillicutty is 224 pounds, Santino is 227; we should see a great fight."

Lily nodded, but her eyes were on Husky and Kozlov, who were glaring at one another from across the ring, holding onto the little white ropes that kept them in their corner.

"The only difference Josh, is that the Nexus are going to come out victorious because they're not wasting opportunities like Santino does," Cole countered, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. "Look at that!" he scoffed, gesturing towards the ring where Santino was tripped to his feet by Slater who had reached under the bottom rope to save Husky from a hip-toss. "That's how you win matches, ladies and gentlemen! Not by wearing disco shirts and hiding behind your big Russian friends!"

"Who's hiding behind anyone?" Lily interjected honestly, shrugging her shoulder and looking left and then right to Matthews and Lawler who flanked her. "Santino is in that ring fighting McGillicutty without any help or foul play. Tamina has managed to stay on the apron and out of the match, which is how everybody ringside should act." Lily gave Cole a reproachful look but then was brought back to the action in the ring by the sound of a slap – Husky was in.

Heidi shook off the nerves and immediately remembered the terms of her deal: save Husky, gain freedom. No longer an impartial spectator, the Hellcat stood flush against the ring, folding her arms under her chin and watching for the moment to strike. The sooner the better, she figured.

As the crowd started to notice Hellcat standing at attention, they became shocked and more boos were thrown at her.

"HELLCAT IS A TRAITOR!" she could hear distinctly behind her.

"Oh what's this?" Cole asked, turning his head slowly towards Lily, an arrogant smile on his face. "Heidi Harris has gone fully to the Nexus? HA! I knew she was nothing more than a little girl! Look at how complete the transformation is, Lily!" He used her name like a rapier, emphasizing it obnoxiously as he leaned over Lawler to shout at her.

"Well what is she supposed to do, Cole? She's a part of the Nexus now and I'm sure they keep a close eye on her," Lawler replied sagely, shaking his head and returning his attention to the match.

Husky had Kozlov (who had slapped in moments before) trapped in the corner and was kicking him repeatedly in the knee, trying to cripple the height advantage of the Moscow Mauler. Tamina was busily clapping and rooting for Vladimir, who didn't look too much worse for wear despite the barrage of boots-to-the-knee.

As suddenly as Popeye grew muscles after a can of spinach, Vladimir pushed Husky with all his might, shoving him end-over to land on his back. Standing from the corner to a crowd on their feet with excitement, the 6'8, 302 pound Russian shook his head and then waited for his large opponent to get up.

When Husky did, he ran right into a clothesline that knocked him cleanly on his duff.

Santino and Tamina were both cheering right along with the crowd, leading them in a collective clapping chant that went around the arena and was soon joined with "NEXUS SUCKS, NEXUS SUCKS!"

Heidi's fists clenched as she watched, not from anger at the chants, or the taunts, or the boos that she knew she rightly deserved, but from the tumult inside of her. She was full of contradictions: one the one hand she wanted nothing more than for Kozlov to let Husky out of the chokehold he had him in. But, the wiser part of herself wanted nothing to do with the looks of rebuff she was getting from Tamina.

Her stomach lurched when she saw Kozlov go for the cover but then, in true Nexus fashion, Slater came from behind and kicked Kozlov in the back of the head before scurrying under the ropes to stand, innocently, on the apron once more.

"Look at that!" Cole praised. "So smart to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike, the One Man Rock Band has come through for his teammates tonight, my friend! Santino and Kozlov don't have the guts to do what has to be done. Another reason they'll always be losers!"

"You mean he cheated again," Lily corrected him, looking up as Santino was slapped in. "If the Nexus win tonight it will have nothing to do with the skill of Husky Harris or Michael McGillicutty, and everything to do with the rest of the group unable to remain ringside and not become involved!" she finished, looking over at Michael the way a mother would to a son after finding a Playboy under his bed.

"Yeah, if that's victory then I don't want any part of it," Lawler said with a nod. "And it looks like Husky is getting himself into trouble!" Effectively settling the tension at the commentator's table, Lawler forced everyone's attention back to the ring.

Husky had taken quite a beating from Kozlov, who left the ring without a hitch in his step and was standing now, as vulture-like as ever, ready for the next tag. His deepset eyes lingered for a moment on the Hellcat, showing no sign of recognition or mercy, simply staring at her as an opponent.

After a few minutes with the Moscow Mauler, Husky was not looking so great. Even as he stood, he wobbled this way and that, like a drunk in a pair of heels, and there was a distant look in his eye that, momentarily, gave Lily a jolt of concern. She remembered similar looks from football concussions and actually cringed as Santino kicked him over and then delivered a headbutt-drop right to the skull.

Finding her voice, Heidi cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted at her brother. Lying face down, he was in the perfect position for Santino to wrap him into a camel clutch, sitting on the 300 pound man's back, grabbing his arms, and pulling back with a howl of triumph that set the crowd's applause through the roof.

"COME ON, HUSKY, ELBOW HIS FACE!" she cried desperately. This was it, it was her moment to gain her freedom back; she had to keep Husky from tapping out and was just about to crawl up onto the ring and dash under the ropes when she saw the light flicker in Husky's eyes again. He winced and then, with great strength, rolled over, pinning Santino to the mat with his legs flailing.

The crowd's cheers quickly turned into boos upon seeing their Italian hero squashed beneath the chubby Nexus guy, but Hellcat was relieved. She lowered herself back to the floor and watched, hoping that a win for the Nexus still meant that she would be able to take her freedom and run.

Alas, a hand gripped her shoulder and forced her to look up into Wade Barrett's face. He pulled her to the side and scowled at her, the same way he scowled at all of his alleged 'teammates.'

"Why did you hesitate? I don't care what move you save him from but it's your duty to make sure he doesn't get finished!" Wade reminded curtly, his voice hushed but clear as he put his face closer to hers. "Do not let him down!" he ended, and then shoved her towards the ring again.

"It looks like Barrett has some harsh words for the Hellcat over there. I wonder what he's telling her," Lawler said, leaning around to see the spectacle as it finished.

Cole scoffed. "He's probably telling her to stop slacking off and make herself useful."

Once again, Lily countered him. "You mean he's telling her to cheat. Yeah, that sounds like something Barrett would do. Up until now, Hellcat and Tamina are the only people ringside who haven't gotten involved, a fact I think most people would be proud of."

Breathing easier now that McGillicutty and Kozlov were in the ring, Heidi moved over to Husky's corner and got his attention by poking his hairy calf. He looked down at her, asking with his eyes what the heck she wanted.

"What?" he asked urgently as she just stared, looking down at her as Michael hit Kozlov in the face a few times, the slap of skin resounding even over the crowd.

"Are you ok?" she asked simply. It was a real question, one asked by a younger sister to her older brother, really wanting to know if that knee to the head had addled his noggin.

Husky rolled his eyes and nodded, as if the answer were obvious, and shooed her away with his hand behind him, trying to get her to go elsewhere. Having Heidi cling to his shin was too reminiscent of childhood for the moment, especially as Michael barely managed to stumble into the corner and make the slap. Santino had knocked him around rather well, even after the crushing belly-to-back suplex that McGillicutty had dealt.

Heidi knew that the end was coming when Husky almost tripped on the bottom rope trying to get in the ring. He was sluggish. His coordination was lacking as well and she knew that her time had come. She stayed closeby, just waiting for the moment where she would have to finally betray her newfound friends and all of the fans she had earned over her stunt with Mysterio and Alberto.

When Husky ran at Satino and missed because of the Italian's signature splits, Heidi groaned and grabbed the bottom ropes. Timing was key here, she had to make it into the ring and then make it back out before the ref noticed, and, to her begrudging relief, she saw that Wade and Otunga were keeping the referee busy by shouting at him from the other side.

One hip toss later, and Heidi knew what to do.

It was now or never.

Santino was already slapping his arm into Cobra formation, heaving huge breaths so that his shoulders rose and fell with the rising momentum of the moment. The crowd electrified, chanting "COBRA, COBRA, COBRA!" as they watched the blue-suited Italian wait for Husky to stand up and receive his just reward...

Hellcat moved then, lurching forward to throw herself into the ring at Santino's feet, but she fell short and was suddenly yanked back with all the finesse of a Neanderthal in a china store. Her chin hit the mat and then scraped all the way off until she fell, face-first, onto the black apron.

Getting to her knees, she shook her head and then looked back to see who had stopped her from making the save only to see Tamina standing behind her with her hands on her hips and a look in her eye that told Hellcat the fight had just begun.

The match had miraculously not ended since Husky had managed to avoid the cobra thanks to McGillicutty, who ignored his post and kicked Santino square in the head. However, despite her happiness for Husky's well-being, and the state of her freedom, the Hellcat had bigger fish to fry indeed as Tamina pulled her onto her feet by her hand.

The older, tanner, and significantly stronger woman tilted her head to the side, asking what the Hellcat though she was doing with a shake of her head. Then, with the agility and grace of a panther, Tamina grabbed Heidi around the back of the neck and stooped to take her leg in her hands, hoisting her upside-down onto her shoulder. And, with a heave so forceful it shot Heidi several feet into the air, Tamina flipped the Hellcat over and onto her back on the unforgiving apron.

Heidi lay there, literally stunned as her vision swam, blurring in and out as she recovered from the blow.

"OH check Tamina out! She wanted nothing to do with the Hellcat getting involved in the match!" Lawler commented, slamming his fist onto the table with oomf. "That's gotta hurt! The lovely Tamina is easily twice as strong as the Hellcat. Does it look like she's moving, Lily?"

But Lily did not answer. Sitting there, stupefied, Lily found that she had no words. Heidi had been about to stop Santino from giving Husky a well-deserved cobra. She had seen it with her own eyes, she was a witness to the betrayal, but there was a disconnect in her mind that refused to accept the reality of what she had just seen.

Cole laughed mercilessly at Lily's expression and made several more comments about his new love for Tamina.

In the ring, the match had dissolved into chaos. The ref was busily shouting at someone to ring the bell so as to disqualify everyone. All of the Nexus (save for the pancake that Heidi had become) were in the ring, ganging up on Santino and Kozlov. The Moscow Mauler was fairing better than most though, easily taking out Michael and Husky with a double clothesline that had the two match-weary members lying on their backs longer than the rest.

Wade and Otunga were both focusing on Santino, who had lost his footing thanks to a rough shove and was holding his head as the barrage of feet and fists seemingly never ended. Slater was left to Kozlov and stepped over his fallen teammates to try and rally a counterattack to the enormous Russian when he saw Justin climb the turnbuckle behind Kozlov, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"This match is ruled a disqualification!" the ref shouted after the bell rang. He went from group to group, pushing the Nexus off of Santino just as Slater tripped Kozlov. Then, despite their technical failure, Justin Gabriel readied himself and delivered his stunning 450 Splash, landing right on the stomach of Kozlov and effectively ending his role in the match.

By the time Heidi got to her feet again, the Nexus were standing in one corner while Santino and Kozlov stood in another, accompanied by Tamina who was glaring as Heidi climbed into the ring and rolled under the bottom ropes.

The look on her face was hellish, as if she had a score to settle.

"Uh oh, looks like the Hellcat wants some revenge on Tamina!" Lawler exclaimed, watching as Heidi stomped forward like a miniature soldier.

However it was not Tamina she glared at. It was Wade Barrett.

"NOW can I go?" she asked, her voice loud enough to be heard even at the commentator's table. Moments later, the ref delivered a microphone to the Nexus and one to Santino and Kozlov, who were watching with interest, with Tamina rubbing Santino's shoulders.

Snatching the microphone like a frog catching a fly, Heidi brought it to her mouth and stood in front of Wade, stabbing her finger into his chest with considerable force.

"You said that if I kept up my end of the deal that I could have my freedom!" she boomed, her magnified voice and surprising news causing the audience (plus Lily) to gasp. She glared up at him, knowing somehow that he was going to weasel his way out of their arrangement. "I did what I could, and if the rest of you hadn't been so useless then I could have done what I said I would do without interruption!" she barked, looking at the Nexus. Otunga and Wade were standing still, watching her, while Slater and Gabriel knelt behind Michael and Husky respectively, helping them to their feet.

Wade took the microphone from Heidi with a rough swipe of his hand, almost like a slap, and slowly lifted it to his diagonal lips.

"Your end of the deal was not upheld, Ms. Harris. Therefore, our bargain is off the table."

The fans, who had already been confused that night at the sight of the Hellcat in the traitorous black and yellow garb, were relatively silent as they watched the argument unfold in the ring. Santino, Kozlov, and Tamina were watching as well, with increased curiosity.

At this response, Heidi howled with rage and ripped the microphone from Wade's hands, scratching him as she did so. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts to her, or to entertain any idea other than shoving her fist into his mouth to knock out those snaggly British teeth...

Her fingers raked through her hair and she paced in a line between the two worlds: black and yellow, or red and blue.

"Then I want to officially ask for a match. I will fight you. I will fight Gabriel. I will fight Michael... I will fight Husky, I'll fight all of you at once, I don't care, but I want a match to earn my freedom from the Nexus!" Hellcat shouted after a moment, looking up at the crowd this time, hoping that they were behind her.

Lily shot her fist into the air and let out a whoop that blended in well with the rest of the audience's reaction.

DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO

The lights flickered as the sound of a message from the anonymous RAW General Manager played and the crowd went ballistic. The roar of sound was only heightened as Michael Cole stood and waved, like a pageant-winner, and buttoned his jacket on his way to the podium. Once there, he opened up the laptop.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please." The crowd booed vociferously. "I have just received an email from the anonymous RAW General Manager. And I quote: Hellcat, you've gotten yourself into trouble once again. I have allowed you to remain here under certain terms that have now changed – as a part of the Nexus, our earlier agreement is null. Since you are not an official member of the WWE, you have no matches to ask for."

Heidi clutched the ropes, leaning towards Cole as she listened, hoping desperately for better to news to follow. As it stood, she'd be stuck with the Nexus or the worse option...going home and kissing her mission goodbye.

"However, if you can assemble a team to face the Nexus then I will allow them to fight for you in a six-on-six match."

Lily sat and felt very smug, wearing a cat-ate-the-canary grin of superiority as she watched the Nexus all laugh to themselves at the GM's edict. They were slapping each other on the shoulder as if they had nothing at all to worry about. They obviously didn't remember the article she had comissioned...

"But how long do I have?" she asked, looking around to Cole, Lawler, Lily, and finally to the referee, demanding an answer they could not give from each of them.

Heidi got her answer when she heard the telltale music behind her.

"On your knees..."

With her mouth open wide in elation, Heidi watched as Jack Swagger stepped out from backstage and strutted towards the ramp. He held his arms out, as if he were a blonde, wrestling Jesus that had just stepped down from the cross to stomp some Jewish keister. He beat his chest with both hands, a typical gorilla move that Heidi had never been so happy to see.

But then, it got better.

When Swagger was halfway down the ramp, being cheered for the first time perhaps ever, another superstar's music came on, blazing with trumpets and fanfare that only a true royal could ever appreciate.

Alberto del Rio.

Decked in his golden undies and cream silk scarf, he strut out to the mixed review of them as a team. He strut up to Swagger and stood next to him, waving and smiling despite the occasional boos.

Heidi was surprised to see them both standing there but had no time to contemplate the weirdness of the situation as she heard the next superstar's music. The dramatic organ chord hit and Heidi actually jumped up and down, a kid again, as she watched the lights all go red. Then, to her amazement, Kane stepped out, his bald, monstrous presence thrilling her even from the ring.

Lily, who hadn't gotten back to Swagger after she told him to assemble a team, was shocked to see who the All-American American had managed to compile. Of course, she was hardly dazzled by his selection of heels, but if they were going to fight for Heidi then she supposed she didn't care who they were, only that they got the job done.

After Kane came to stand next to Swagger, the next superstar's theme played.

"BOOYAKA, BOOYAKA, 619! BOOYAKA, BOOYAKA, Rey Mysterio!"

Heidi whooped and jumped onto the corner ropes to clap and holler in the affirmative at the team that was organizing in front of her. Rey Mysterio had been her first friend in the WWE, and the one who had taught her the most – he was definitely someone she wanted on her side, and as he came to stand on the other side of Kane, putting as much distance between himself and Alberto del Rio as possible, he pointed at Heidi with a grin.

The next bit of music played, and the crowd became a churning wave of jumping purple and yellow as the entrance music for John Cena sounded, shortly followed by the man himself. He came out and beheld the crowd, walking slowly and slapping high-five to a little boy with a "U Can't C Me" shirt on.

At that, Team Hellcat advanced on the ring, climbing inside as Cena ran down the ramp and slid under the bottom ropes. By now, Santino and Kozlov were already walking backstage with Tamina in-between them, holding them around the backs as they scuttled off. Assembling into a line behind the Hellcat, Swagger, del Rio, Kane, Mysterio, and Cena all posing a mighty force.

Wade, however, simply chuckled and grabbed the microphone.

"Your team is incomplete, Hellcat. You need six to face the Nexus, in case you've forgotten," he sneered.

Heidi, who had been so enthralled with the team that had come out to her favor, had overlooked this tiny detail. She turned around and counted them, her eyes looking past them as she counted and recounted. Five. There were only five of them.

"Damnit!" she shouted, turning back to Wade Barrett.

Lily gulped. As soon as she'd seen the men getting into the ring she knew that something was wrong. The GM wasn't going to amend his call either – Heidi needed a sixth member to her team or else the match would fall by the wayside.

She had done her part, or so she had thought, but as she looked at Team Hellcat she was forced to amend her former thoughts. Swagger had gotten three of the five. He had even managed to convince Kane for crying out loud. Certainly having someone like him on their side was to their benefit.

Feeling her stomach tighten, Lily looked at the ring and then to the Titantron, where she hoped that one more member of RAW that she had sent anonymous emails to would answer the call...

"Well, well, well, looks like Heidi Harris is going back home with the Nexus!" Cole said with delight as he stayed at the podium and gripped the sides, leaning into the microphone to throw his words sky-high.

"Well wait now, the GM never gave a time limit, Michael," Lawler said, standing up and addressing the crowd, who was past excited. The rallying support for the Hellcat and her mix-and-match team of saviours was palpable. "Why don't we put up 30 seconds on the clock and let her go find someone?" he asked, directing his question at the crowd, who responded enthusiastically in the affirmative.

"All right, you heard 'em! Put 30 seconds up there!"

In that moment, Lily could have kissed Jerry "The King" Lawler.

On the Titantron, a huge red stopwatch started clicking away the seconds that would lead to Hellcat's demise.

The first thing that happened was Wade Barrett grabbing her by the back of the neck to keep her from making the most of her time. Regardless of how quickly Swagger struck him in the head to make him let go, Hellcat had already lost precious time.

24, 23, 22, 21

Heidi was feeling panicked. Every second was a grain of sand falling through the hourglass, trapping her under a mountain of grit. But, never one to be defeated, Heidi lept from the ring and landed in a roll on her knees. She was headed towards the ramp to try and find people backstage, running towards the Titantron to disappear behind the corner and find, hopefully, at least one more ally in the WWE.

15, 14, 13, 12

"The Hellcat is down to ten seconds now! Can she find another team member to fight for her cause or will she go home with the Nexus tonight? Very exciting stuff on Monday Night RAW!" Lawler growled into the mic, watching everything.

She was running up the ramp now but stopped dead as she saw the silhouette of someone standing directly under the Titantron as it clicked away the seconds of her potential freedom. As he stepped out onto the ramp, a chorus of "WHAT'S UP" was heard.

R-Truth had come to her aid.

As the time limit was reaching its end, Heidi grabbed onto R-Truth's wrist and dragged him towards the ring, allowing him no time to dance down the ramp and do his rap as his song played.

They made it into the ring just as the Titantron showed a lurid red zero, and the audience loved it. A six-man tag-team match against the Nexus was just the kind of thing they had paid to see.

Heidi gave R-Truth a bone-crushing hug as he took his place next to Cena, and refused to let go, even as he patted her head genially and shared a laugh with Cena about the kid's apparent desire to leave the Nexus.

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" she said with the utmost sincerity to all of them, looking to Swagger last and noting with pleasure that his black eye was gone. He gave her a kind-of smile and then looked to his left, at Kane, who looked as single-minded as a hungry lion.

To R-Truth, Heidi beamed, her smile a flashlight in the darkness, and he returned her spirit.

"Can't let you rot with the Nexus," he reasoned, tousling her pin-straight hair (thanks to Slater, again).

DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please," Cole barked as he clicked the newest email from the GM, his voice slicing above the sudden jeers and clapping. "And I quote, the team has been assembled and the match is as follows: Jack Swagger & Alberto del Rio & Kane & Rey Mysterio & John Cena & R-Truth against the Nexus. This is an over-the-top-rope match until the final two opponents, who will battle for a pinfall victory."

Heidi clapped and listened as she bounced from foot to foot, unable to contain her excitement despite her inability to fight for her own freedom.

Cole read on. "The stakes are simple. Hellcat, if you win you will be granted your freedom from the Nexus. However, if Nexus wins then Hellcat, you must not only remain with them... but I will contract you into the WWE under Nexus leadership."

Heidi's mouth gaped. Lily's eyes bugged. Even Swagger, who was already well-versed in looking dumbfounded, couldn't seem to wrap his head around what was happening and managed to look twice as stupid as ever, his blue eyes wide as he looked around for a cue-card or interpreter to tell him what was going on.

"WHAT?" Heidi asked once the initial shock had left her. Her team was whispering and chatting behind her, discussing the new rules, seemingly having forgotten that most of them didn't get along at all.

"And there is one final surprise for this match. This match will have guest referee."

Heidi gulped and started to pace, like a father in a delivery room. She was listening but couldn't bear to look at Michael Cole as he continued to add parameters onto an already incredible upcoming match.

Cole paused, as if the words suddenly disappeared, or he wished they would. Then, in a voice heavy with sorrow, he added the final stipulation.

"That guest referee will be none other than you, Hellcat."

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**Read and review! I know you wanna.**


	16. Nexus vs Team Hellcat

**This chapter was a collaborative effort. Almost 100% of the choreography was written by my cousin. I just made it look pretty and read nicely. He helps me keep things interesting since he has been a fan longer than I have. Thanks, Jonah!**

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As soon as Hellcat pulled the black and white ref's shirt over her head, the bell rang.

Swagger, who had been huffing and puffing as he paced in a line in front of his teammates, charged forward immediately, like an orc into battle. The roar he let out was entirely predatory, and caught the other members of Team Hellcat by surprise. Swagger's great arms swung in front of him, his eyes deadset on Wade Barrett. He was practically frothing at the mouth as he chugged ahead, intent on eliminating the most obvious threat to put his team on top.

Husky stepped forward and abruptly stopped the All-American American's forward charge as he threw his arm out into a clothesline. The audience gasped as Swagger stood still for a moment and then started to fall back like a tree falling in the forest. The CRACK that sounded as he fell seemed to wake the other members of Team Hellcat from their mutual astonishment.

Heidi beat her fist against the mat as she watched Wade and McGillicutty step forward, obviously intent on finishing Swagger.

"COME ON YOU BIG OAF! GET UP!" she shouted, kicking the steel steps as her short temper got the better of her.

Swagger started to struggle to his feet but it was too late for him. Wade hooked Jack's arm over his head, and Michael did the same, scooting Swagger like a mannequin towards the rope.

"Swagger has gotten himself into trouble, it looks like they're going for a double suplex to eliminate the All-American American!" Lily reported after her laughing spell was over. The blonde man had started with such vigor, but Husky had put an untimely stop to that.

The crowd let out a collective groan as Wade and Michael sent Swagger flying over the ropes to land on his back on the apron, mere feet away from the Hellcat. Lily lowered her forehead to her hands and sighed, unsure of whether she should laugh at Swagger's spectacular elimination or groan that Team Hellcat was already down one member so soon.

Jack's eyes shifted in and out of focus as the noise became dampened and his vision blurred in and out. He hadn't blinked in several long moments until finally her shook his head and squinted at the bright overhead lights.

Hellcat stood over him with a hand on her hip, glaring down her nose at her failed comrade.

"Really? THAT'S how you get eliminated?" she asked heatedly. Then, not waiting for his answer, she threw her arm up in total disgust and marched back to the ring to watch the rest of the fight anxiously. With one man down it was more important than ever that they stay focused and not give Nexus the upper hand.

Pouncing on their opportunity to play their numbers against their opponents, Slater and Gabriel moved forward in unison, working as two members of one body. Kane was their obvious goal, figuring that they should dispense the Big Red Machine before he got any real momentum going.

Slater kicked Kane in the spine, causing the enormous bald man to stop hitting Otunga repeatedly into the turnbuckle. Turning around with all the berth of a semi-truck, Kane's wild eyes fell onto the tag-team duo, and instantly his face contorted with devilish hatred. He swung once at Gabriel, hoping to smack his head clean off but the South African native ducked and Kane staggered slightly to the side.

Never one to be defeated though, Kane chugged forward and kept swinging at the the One Man Rock Band and his agile friend, both of them artfully ducking and dodging his massive blows. The Big Red Monster stumbled left and right, looking bigger and clumsier than ever now that he was facing two much smaller, much speedier men.

Cena wasted no time rushing in and throwing his arm around Husky's beefy neck. The next thing Heidi knew, she was ogling with her jaw drooping as John Cena threw Husky backwards over his shoulder in a perfect suplex.

"Woah..." was all she could manage to utter as she watched the whole ring bounce and sway after the mighty blow Cena had dealt her brother, to the delight of the sign waving Cena-loving crowd.

Swagger was up now and stormed around the apron, shouting instructions from below at his teammates.

Heidi felt the color drain from her cheeks when Gabriel and Slater lured Kane into a shoulder press from McGillicutty. When he went down she thought that surely, this was the beginning of the end for her. Justin Gabriel was climbing the ropes, setting up perfectly for his 450 splash as he balanced, catlike, on the top set.

"YOU SHOULD BE DOING THOMETHING!" Swagger shouted from behind Heidi, pushing her forward a bit with a shove that was too enthusiastic to be given to someone Heidi's size by someone who was Swagger's. She lurched forward and caught herself against ring, nearly smacking her chin, which was already sore from the beatdown she'd gotten from Tamina.

As she looked up, Gabriel was just standing, his arms thrown back as he prepared for the jump that would leave Kane out of business. After that it was only a matter of chucking him over the top ropes which, with all six members of the Nexus, would be no trouble at all.

Alberto, who was currently squaring off toe to toe with McGillicutty, noticed Gabriel behind him in the nick of time. Rushing over to the corner, he jumped and kicked Justin in the jaw.

Heidi hollered "YEAH!" as she watched Justin topple with uncharacteristic gracelessness to the black apron, where he lay for a moment, rolling over and holding his chin.

"OH, and the score is tied between Nexus and Team Hellcat!" Lily chirped, sitting up straight and leaning over the table to try and get closer to the action. There was a little stone of worry in her stomach but she ignored it, pleasantly surprised at how well both sides were fighting. She had been worried that anyone Swagger managed to recruit to Heidi's aid would be selfish heels like he was, but she had been impressed so far with their determination to fight it as if it were any other match.

Winning was paramount.

Wade quickly gave Mysterio a big boot, which he hardly had to raise thanks to his freakish height. Mysterio swayed for a moment and then fell down, rolling away from the large Brit's boot, which was coming down in a ferocious stomp. Kane looked tired but was still well enough to punch David Otunga in the face once, twice, three times until the black man fell into the corner and hung on the second ropes for a moment of pause.

R-Truth had just stood up after putting McGillicutty in a side headlock that pinned him to the floor and was still trying to wear down the big man with kicks and headlocks when he saw a great shadow from behind him. In a moment of curiosity, R-Truth looked over his shoulder in time to see Husky launch himself off the top rope.

"Oh my god," Lily gaped, cringing as she watched Husky clothesline R-Truth with what could only be described as pure ruthlessness. The black man crumpled to the stage and Husky scooped him up like a newborn, hoisting him over the top rope without a second thought.

Heidi was jumping up and down, stomping, and otherwise trying to contain her excitement and her frustration. The single most important match of her unofficial career was taking place and she had no part in it aside from what little power she could wield in her black and white stripes.

"COME ON!" she shouted in a voice that she tried to make sound encouraging but came out more threatening.

"Look at Mysterio, using his high flying tricks to keep Slater on the ground. Those moves could really cost him in a match like this. I don't know how smart it is to go climbing those ropes," Josh said with a shake of his head.

Lawler cheered as Mysterio hopped off the rope and then flew chest first onto Slater, taking him to the ground in a flawless moonsault. "That looked smart!" he said.

With his hand on the back of Barrett's neck, Cena jumped forward and used the weight of his body to carry them both to the ground, where he landed next to Barrett on his bum while Wade ate the mat. The Brit lifted his head and spat a bit of blood onto the mat, but got up quickly to battle Cena some more, the two of them clearly hellbent on inflicting as much pain to the other as possible.

Heidi tried not to bite her nails as she saw Mysterio kicking Slater in the back of the knee. The redhead stumbled forward while Rey jumped in midair and kicked out, sending Slater into the ropes to dangle, setting up for his finisher, the 619. Whooping like any other fan at that moment, Heidi watched as the masked luchador bounced off the ropes and then swung between them in a flawless finisher.

The crowd got to their feet as Slater fell back, and into Cena's arms. Heidi gasped in sheer glee as Cena hoisted the One Man Rock Band onto his shoulders and then smirked at the crowd, as if sharing a private moment with his fans. Then, with a heave, he gave Slater an Attitude Adjustment to land precariously close to where Gabriel was sullenly watching the match.

"YEAH!" Hellcat shouted, pounding her fist against the mat the same way a civilized person would clap at the philharmonic to show true appreciation. Cena looked down at her and smiled, just for a split second, and then dashed back to his newest opponent.

David Otunga was all too glad to dash forward and kick Cena in the ribs, causing Heidi to holler discouraging words at him, mostly about his afro and cooking skills. Over and over, he clubbed Cena in the face, wearing him down by never letting up or giving him a chance to gather his composure. Seemingly rejuvenated by the sight of Gabriel and Slater eliminated, Otunga went to work, a dogged look in his dark eyes that foretold of an endless stamina.

"WATCH IT, REY!" Swagger called up, his voice carrying as easily as a leaf in the wind. He stood behind the Hellcat with his arms folded, rolling his eyes as if a battle royale were the simplest thing in the world and he couldn't fathom how any of them were struggling. Annoyingly, he remained by Heidi's side, leaning down to give her tips once it came down to the final two competitors and hollering unwanted advice into the ring almost constantly.

Heidi elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Would you shut it already? You're talking an awful lot for someone eliminated first," she reminded.

Michael reached forward and grabbed Mysterio's hand, yanking sharply to careen him into the ropes. On the rebound, Michael seized his wrist and then pivoted, swinging Mysterio clean off the ground. When McGillicutty let go, Rey Mysterio went sailing over the ring. He landed well, tucking his legs and rolling through the impact to land on his feet, but eliminated nevertheless.

Feeling haughty, Michael took a split second to revel in the boos that had accompanied Rey out of the ring. He held his hand up to his ear wanting more of a reaction, considering how impressive he thought the move was. The crowd started cheering then, to his amazement, and he wore a truly sincere grin on his face for a moment until he felt a pair of fingers clench around his throat.

The Big Red Monster had Michael in his clutches.

Breathing down at Michael like a lion contemplating his prey, Kane breathed heavily, his scowl growing more and more hellish. The craziness in his eyes had McGillicutty clawing at Kane's hand, trying to tear it away from his throat but to no avail. With a roar that could be heard in every stretch of the arena, Kane lifted his powerful arm into the air and then chokeslammed Michael McGillicutty out of the ring, clearing the top rope by inches.

The recovery from losing Mysterio was made much easier as Heidi watched Michael fall to the apron with force, like a yo-yo on a string that was too long. He dropped straight down and then lay still, with Slater and Gabriel slapping his face to see if there was any life left behind his empty eyes.

Mysterio, indifferent to Swagger's seeming omnipresence behind the Hellcat, came over and stood next to her, shaking his head and looking up at the match with his hands on his hips.

"It's a battle in there, no doubt," he panted, taking long breaths and adjusting his mask, under which Heidi could see the sheen of sweat glimmering on his skin.

Swagger was about to say something stupid, no doubt, when Heidi stomped on his foot and and put a hand on Rey's shoulder.

"I'm just glad you came to help. It means a lot," she said sincerely, though she couldn't tear her eyes away from the action for too long.

"Alberto del Rio seems to be doing very well in this matchup," Lawler said, a tone of surprise in his voice for having something praiseworthy to say about the Mexican Aristocrat. "That earlier powerslam to Wade Barrett and then the kick to eliminate Gabriel from the top ropes and look at him now," he said, pointing to the ring where del Rio had just pulled Otunga into his finishing move, the rolling cross arm breaker.

Otunga fell with del Rio and tapped the mat instantly, slamming his hand against it time and time again to try and tap out.

Sensing her cue, Hellcat slid under the bottom ropes and shook her head, getting into the corner where Alberto had Otunga.

"NOPE! Over the top rope only! NO TAP OUTS!" Hellcat called, drawing her hand across her throat as she shouted the last part, grinning at the look of pain on David's face. Alberto pulled harder, leaning back with a merciless grip.

"OH, the Hellcat is not feeling generous tonight!" Lawler exclaimed, earning an ear-to-ear grin from Lily, who was watching about as involved as Heidi was.

"Good call, ref!" she wailed pointedly as the Hellcat scooted out of the ring again and went to stand by Jack Swagger, who had moved away from Mysterio and was shaking the ropes to trip Husky as he tried to climb to the top and administer a diving dropkick. Instead, Husky fell down, albeit on the inside of the ring, but Swagger still smirked cockily at the big, fat doofus as he lay sprawled on the mat, absorbing the blow.

Standing up, Husky shook off the blow and caught Wade's eye. The large, crooked-faced Englishman was glowering at del Rio and then nodded at Husky so that the two of them moved forward as a team. Husky grabbed a fistful of Alberto del Rio's oily hair and pulled him up off of Otunga, who instantly recoiled and cradled his arm to his chest.

Yanking del Rio to his feet, Husky then stepped aside, marveling in how the crowd went from excited to enraged in only a few short seconds when they saw Wade gather del Rio onto his shoulders, preparing for his finisher. Heidi stomped and fumed, only held into place by Swagger, who wouldn't let her move from her spot as Barrett gave Alberto del Rio a Wasteland over the top rope, whittling down Team Hellcat by another peg, leaving only Cena and Kane to fight the Nexus.

In the other side of the ring, visible now that Wade and Husky weren't in the way, Heidi saw Cena bounce off the ropes and into Otunga in a flying shoulder press. David went down and Cena followed, immediately trapping his leg and then pulling back on his chin to deliver an STF. Otunga tried tapping out again, the pain this time much worse than it had been in del Rio's arm-breaker.

With great joy, Heidi hollered her earlier call and reminded them all the stipulations of the match: "OVER THE TOP ROPE ONLY!"

With all the efficiency of a garbage man taking out the trash, Cena managed to hoist Otunga over the ropes, leaving him and Kane to face off with Barrett and Husky.

"We're down to the last two on each side, who do you think is going to win this one?" Lily asked, looking briefly over to her cohosts before staring back into the ring. She was so nervous that, if she were a lesser woman, she would have been biting her nails, tapping her pencil, or shredding bits of paper. Instead, her leg shook, bouncing her flowing brown skirt up and down under the table.

"I don't know, Lily. Both sides have great superstars left, but I think that Kane is going to come out on top," Matthews surmised, shrugging as he appraised the sight before him. Of everyone in the ring, Kane was the most intense and the largest, which would play to his advantage in toppling people over the ropes.

Lily nodded in agreement, but her eyes were on Husky, who was stealing glances every now and then at Heidi, who seemed not to notice the stink-eye she was getting from her brother. She wanted to believe but couldn't assuage the sliver of doubt that was rapidly growing inside of her. It didn't matter how pleased she was at the remaining members of Team Hellcat – she was queasy about Husky and Wade working together.

Of all the Nexus, those two had the most reason to want to hold onto Hellcat.

This fact had not escaped Heidi either, and she breathed evenly, trying to keep her calm as the match wore on, sweat and drops of blood flying every now and then when someone landed a particularly smashing punch. It had dissolved into a bloodbath, with Husky showing no sign of stopping, tiring, or forfeiting.

Heidi knew this was how he got when he wanted something. It didn't matter if it was wrestling or the remote, when he wore a look like the one he was giving Kane, Heidi knew he had tapped into his reservoirs of inner strength. It was his size that deceived people into thinking that he was nothing more than a tubby kid with a few moves to sit on people, but Heidi knew better.

There was a Ferrari behind her brother's tank.

Cena and Kane stood next to each other, two men beholding a post-apocalyptic frontier as they caught their breath and prepared for the mushroom cloud.

Kane acted first, wrapping his mighty fist around Husky's throat, preparing for another chokeslam. The crowd, including Heidi, started to chant "CHOKESLAM, CHOKESLAM" as Kane led his latest victim from the center of the ring to the ropes, smiling that deformed, twisted smile that only a creature of the deep, dark under could truly conceive.

Without the slightest hint of care for his teammate, Wade tramped forward to headbutt Cena savagely. He wasted no time gathering Cena onto his shoulder, strutting around the ring to hear the boos that nearly knocked Hellcat over as they came so zealously from behind. Wade simply snorted with derision as Cena lay helpless on his shoulders, preparing for the second Wasteland over the top ropes of the night.

Heidi didn't know who to watch – Kane and Husky or Wade and Cena. If it came down to it, she decided it would be better for Wade to be stuck in the ring with the Big Red Machine, but she also didn't want to see what kind of damage Kane would leave on her brother after a chokeslam that would take him all the way to the apron.

Inhaling sharply, Heidi watched as Husky kicked Kane in the sternum, forcing him back and to let go of the chokehold.

Her green eyes then darted over to where Cena had suddenly come to life on Barrett's shoulders and slid down his back to land on his feet behind him! Heidi's cheer was deafening, causing even Swagger to wince, as Cena's counter put him in perfect position to turn the move around on Barrett. One simple sweep later, and Wade was trying to get down from Cena's shoulders, but it was too late.

John Cena heaved once, and sent Wade Barrett toppling over the ropes in the second Attitude Adjustment of the night, given to a crowd of people already standing in ovation.

Her celebration was cut short as Heidi placed her full attention on Kane, complaining loudly as she saw Husky throw his shoulder into the Big Red Monster and send him backwards over the ropes. Her brother watched as Kane fell with a grave expression, as if there was no light on inside, only a smoldering darkness that propelled him ever forward.

"Thith ith it, Hellcat," Swagger shouted from behind her, looking down with his big, blue eyes, suddenly very serious. He spun Heidi to face him and shook her shoulders to grab her attention. "Don't forget who the enemy ith, you got that?" he asked pointedly, putting his face right in hers to remind her what he'd told her a little bit ago: Husky was not an ally.

She nodded, looking up at him with a fist clenched in front of her, wholly determined to do whatever she had to do to win the match in as clean a way as possible.

Then, she slid under the bottom ropes and grabbed a microphone lying around. With a grin, she lifted it to her mouth and said, with great pleasure, "I ban the eliminated Nexus from ringside."

Wade Barrett threw what could only be described as a hissy-fit, kicking at the ground and shouting at Hellcat.

"She can't do that! She has no reason to ban the Nexus from ringside! They have as much riding on this match as her pathetic team does!" Cole griped in his grating, obnoxious voice, pointing his finger as if it were a rapier at the Hellcat, who tossed the microphone to Josh Matthews.

The bell rang again and Lily rolled her eyes. "She most certainly can, it's the ref's job to make those calls."

Swagger was clearly impressed with Hellcat's move and started applauding, jeering at the Nexus as they were forced back up the ramp to watch backstage, leaving only Team Hellcat on the apron.

"Good call, ref! Good call!" he praised.

Lily caught the look on his face as he looked up to Heidi, who was now very much so a part of the match, and furrowed her brows curiously. There was something about the way he'd been acting lately that seemed downright obtuse for him..

She had no time to analyze the faces that Swagger made, however, when she noticed Cena wrapping Husky into a headlock. With a grunt, he threw Husky over to land on the other side of him, trying to bide his time against Husky, who had been in the ring the longest of any of the other opponents that night.

"Well what do you think of Husky's stamina? I didn't think he had this in him!" Lawler admitted, gesturing towards the stage where Husky was retaliating with a running clothesline that sprawled Cena on his back.

Lily pursed her lips, decidedly not remembering all those times she had found out that Husky had suffered a concussion and still played the game, or had been beaten and come back from behind to win. It was those kinds of moments that had crafted Husky into a state wrestling champion.

She swallowed against a lump, rooting for Cena with every fiber of her being. "Husky has great strength of will, especially when it comes to his sister, the Hellcat," Lily explained, watching with a grimace as Husky held Cena up in midair like a pencil and then tossed him down to the mat in an impressive inverted suplex. As if reiterating her own point, Lily shrugged her shoulder and threw her hand at the stage, forcing them all to realize the truth behind her words.

Husky was fighting as if there were a championship or a belt on the line. He had bypassed his threshold of pain three facebusters ago, but still he came.

Heidi made sure to keep out of their way, which proved harder than she thought as the two large men beat each other around every corner of the ring. When Cena had him down, he dealt a Five-Knuckle Shuffle and the crowd went ballistic.

Going for the cover, Cena hooked the leg and Hellcat dropped to the mat, making sure Husky's shoulders were on the floor before she pounded.

"ONE, TWO, THR- "

"OH, and the kickout at two-and-a-half! Harris is hanging on to dear life!" Matthews said excitedly.

"OH COME ON, HELLCAT! DON'T YOU WANT TO WIN?" Swagger screamed, stomping around the apron like a petulant child who wasn't getting his way. His face was blotchy and red as he pounded both fists down onto the mat and panted angrily as he watched the match unfold, wishing beyond all other wishes that he could be in the ring.

Heidi looked at him, her hands up by her shoulders as if to ask, "what?"

Swagger shook his head at her naivety and laughed hollowly. "Count fathter, thith ith not the time or plathe to be noble!" he snapped severely, pushing himself off the ring to circle the apron like a hawk, shouting incessant advice to Hellcat and Cena both.

As Cena was setting up for the shoulder block, Husky held out his arm and clotheslined him, hooking right under the chin to pivot the flying man in midair and drop.

Husky then looked directly to Heidi, demanding that she watch him put away her last hope for freedom. Her stomach flopped over and twisted itself into knots as she watched him lean back on the ropes to give Cena a running senton, the move that had put away Swagger in the gym, the move that was going to steal her freedom away from her...

But just as Husky was going to step over him, Cena grabbed his ankle and rolled through, countering the move into an STF.

Elated, Heidi dropped to the mat and watched the pain in her brother's grimace as Cena tugged back on his chin, holding her brother's ankle between his legs and yanking back even harder as Husky tried to claw for the ropes, his only saving grace. Even if his shoulders were off of the mat, Cena was wearing him down.

Lily groaned as Husky managed to throw Cena, using his 300 pounds to his advantage. He got up, rolling his head around his neck and circling Cena, both of them trying to use the time given to catch their breath as sweat fell from both of their brows.

Had this not been a match for her freedom, Heidi would have been impressed with Husky for the clear stamina and grit he was showing as he went toe-to-toe with Cena after a battle royale and a tag-tam match, but Heidi found that there was little respect left for him. Swagger had been right. Husky was the enemy, and a week with her wasn't time enough to change that.

She moved out of the way as Husky threw Cena into the turnbuckle, where he stayed, dazed for a moment, his arms hanging over the top rope. Roaring like a freight train, Husky ran at top speed into the corner, smashing his whole body into Cena's, which just shook and bounced like a ragdoll. Husky did it again, colliding with the true rage that only an elder brother could muster.

Heidi gasped as Cena fell forward, a gasp shared around the arena, but it soon morphed into a loud cheer as Cena stood up suddenly and threw his shoulder block into the charging tank. Husky stopped, though his arms carried forward still until they swung back and took him with them to sway around.

John Cena walked forward and grabbed him, guiding the both of them over to the corner. Husky obliged, like a puppet on strings, as Cena stepped up to the second rope.

"Cena's going for the superplex... is Husky going to counter it or is he too far gone?" Lily asked, literally asking, wishing that someone would tell her the outcome so that she could stop bouncing her leg like a fiending drug addict.

She got her answer as the crowd watched in awe as Cena flung all of Husky's 300 pounds over his head to land on his back on the mat.

"COUNT FATHT, HELLCAT!" Swagger reminded, shouting from mere feet away as he ran to where Heidi was crouching.

When Cena hooked the leg, Heidi dropped instantly, pounding her fist as the crowd chanted "ONE, TWO, THREE!"

"THE HELLCAT WINS IT!" Lily and Lawler screamed at once, the former rising from her chair with a whoop so loud that Cole looked over at her as if she'd just passed gas.

Cena stood up and shouted, basking in the glory he was getting from his fans. Heidi joined in, pumping her fist into the air as she held Cena's hand up, declaring him the victor.

Pretty soon, all of Team Hellcat was in the ring, clapping each other on the back and giving Cena the props he deserved (except for Kane and del Rio, who just stood near the Hellcat, neither talking nor celebrating).

Heidi was beside herself with relief, riding a wave of pure nirvana that spread a smile on her face so wide that you could see all of her teeth. She hugged everyone, even Kane, who looked, for a moment, as if he were going to squish her like an ant but thought the better of it as she let go and moved onto Mysterio.

Husky rolled away and slunk up the ramp, glaring at everything as he passed.

When she made it to Cena, Heidi squeezed him the tightest around the middle, not caring a whim that her cheek was pressed up against his chest that was slick and salty with sweat. She pulled away and wiped her cheek on the white and black striped shirt, beaming up at him like a candle in the darkness.

Grabbing his wrist again, she drug him into the center of the ring and held his hand up. For him, it was more like holding his arm out,since she was so much shorter, but he didn't try to stop the grin on his face as she jumped up and down, screaming her head off about his victory.

The crowd was on its feet, jumping with her and waving their signs, chanting a hundred different things at once so that all Heidi could understand was that they were excited with her. She was boiling over with joy, glowing so brightly she may have been a fallen star as she stood up on the top ropes and thrust both her fists into the air, her face scrunched in a purely animalistic howl of conquest.

The audience cheered with her, some of them waving their signs with "HELLCAT" printed on them, or pictures of tigers with her face superglued over top.

Last but certainly not least, Swagger stepped forward, right as Heidi turned around. He was cheering as well, the both of them looking at one another and hollering, their voices mixing in with the crowd's.

Heidi was on top of the world, feeling the spike of adrenaline rush through her veins and fill her with heart-pounding joy. She was not thinking anymore, she didn't care about the crowd or the cameras or the consequences of what she was about to do.

Leaping off the top ropes into Swagger's grip, Heidi grabbed a fistful of his hair and kissed him, full on the mouth.

Lily gasped, holding her hand over her mouth as Swagger hugged her friend around the middle and kissed back, the both of them seemingly very oblivious to the world going on around them.

"Holy cow! The Hellcat kissing Swagger? I didn't see that one coming," Lawler said in shock, looking at them how a teacher might look at his prize student for fraternizing with a stoner.

Swagger let her go and Heidi fell to her feet, still grinning, as if there was nothing at all strange about kissing him even though she spent most of her time wanting to slap the durp out of him. She blushed, the only sign that she had recognized what she had done, but Swagger lit up like a firework, pounding his chest with both fists and shaking his head violently back and forth.

He then grabbed Heidi and hoisted her into the air to sit on his shoulders, holding onto her ankles the way a father might to a child at the state fair. The pair of them kept cheering for a moment and then finally filed out of the ring and up the ramp, exiting to Heidi's theme song from the Gorillaz as the All-American American escorted Heidi from the building.

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**Review me, because I know you loved it.**


	17. Scoot Slam

WOAH, this was not an easy chapter to write. Trying to keep it fun and also rip the rug out from underneath everything. xD

Thanks for stickin' with it. I will give this a proper ending, with another match scripted by my cousin. Prepare for HOT AWESOME.

* * *

After winning her freedom, Heidi and Lily spent the entire night celebrating. The broadcast journalist was, surprisingly, free of engagement until the next day and had spared no expense for Heidi's coming home party. In the hotel room, there were streamers and banners hanging on the walls, a bucket of sparkling cider sitting on the table, a cake with a picture of a lion on the top, the floor was littered with confetti, and both of the girls were wearing red party hats. The table was covered with dishes from having ordered the good room service and now the cart stood barren, stripped of all the delectable treats that had compelled them to stay up later and later.

They partied all night, celebrating and laughing, just the two of them with no mention of Husky, the Nexus, or Swagger. Until that is, the party wound down into the wee hours of the morning and then found them both sitting in front of the television, exhausted and sluggish. The morning cartoons were on and between them sat a huge bowl of buttery popcorn.

Too curious to keep back from showering Heidi with questions any longer, Lily finally had to ask the million dollar one and hope that her friend was simply too pooped to get angry.

"So," she began, leading Heidi's attention away from the dancing duck on the TV. "Are you going to talk about what happened between you and Swagger last night?"

"We won. I kissed him," Heidi answered robotically.

Lily pursed her lips. "You don't think that meant anything?"

Heidi rolled her eyes as if quite tired of the question already. "Of course not. I was happy! I would have kissed anyone," she explained, grabbing a handful of popcorn and shoveling it into her mouth.

The taller, older of the girls was not so convinced. She knew Heidi better than she got credit for, and knew that if anything, the Hellcat was stingy with her acts of affection. Heidi had probably kissed a grand total of four guys in her entire life, and had _definitely_ not kissed a grown man on live TV before!

Lily watched Heidi for a moment, reaching over to scoop a few pieces of popcorn into her hand and eat them one by one.

"I see," she said, nodding. "But you didn't kiss anyone. You kissed Jack Swagger."

"So?" Heidi asked, sounding defensive.

"Well Mysterio was there. Cena was there. R-Truth was there. You didn't kiss any of them," Lily pointed out with a slight shrug.

"Those guys are all married! You can't go around kissing married men, now_ that_ would be something to talk about," Heidi rebutted, tossing some of the popcorn into the air and catching it in her mouth.

"Alberto..."

"Would _you_ kiss Alberto or Kane?" Heidi asked, turning to look at her friend with her eyebrows raised. Lily paused and Heidi took that as all the answer she needed. "Didn't think so."

Heidi crossed her feet at the ankle and propped them on the coffee table. Thanks to Lily, her toenails were bright red to match the red fingernails that kept diving into the popcorn bowl.

"Well, do you like him?" Lily wondered, stretching out the first word to try and think of a good way to phrase her question without getting cat-scatched.

Groaning as if this were a conversation she'd been dreading, Heidi wiped her hand over her tired face.

"He's the _only_ person I have. Just because we're not fighting all the time doesn't mean that we're suddenly doing each other's nails," She wiggled her red fingernails at Lily.

Lily smiled and wiped her fingers on a cloth napkin that had come from the tray of room service.

"No, you've graduated to kissing each other," she said primly, though her lips were stretched with smile.

"He assembled a team to get me, he deserved a bit of thanks!" Heidi continued, her voice rising considerably in volume. She felt like a lawyer on trial in a case she knew she was going to lose, but clung anyway to her innocence. Looking from 'A Call to Arms' on the table (Heidi had tickled the truth out of Lily), she hoped to drive her point home.

The way she clung to her story told Lily scads of information about how Heidi felt, and wisely, she stopped pressing so hard for the blonde spitfire to admit it aloud. Her time would come.

However, to Lily's surprise, Heidi continued.

"I mean, Swagger isn't so bad. He's good for what he's good for and we wound up not hating each other. And other people kiss on RAW all the time, I don't know why kissing someone in a moment of victory is anything more or less than that," she retorted.

Lily stifled a grin, but poorly so, and hid it by eating a handful of popcorn.

"I myself have been surprised at his behavior. And I can understand what you're saying, Heidi, really, I can. If that kiss didn't mean anything to you," here Lily paused to let Heidi know she wasn't completely buying the story, "then that's fine. But I think it did mean something to Jack Swagger."

Heidi turned her head suddenly, piercing Lily with her green eyes.

"What?" she asked, laughing at the sheer thought. "No way. Swagger is a grown man, he doesn't get all girly over a little kiss."

Here, Lily practically snorted with laughter, holding her hand over her mouth to keep herself from really making Heidi mad.

"That kiss was _anything_ but little," she corrected, reaching over to grab some more of the popcorn breakfast.

Heidi's eyes narrowed and zeroed in on Lily. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh Heidi, come on! You guys were kissing for a while. It probably just felt like a short kiss because, well, ," Lily explained, speaking the last part quickly into her glass of orange juice in an attempt to hide her words.

Thankfully, Heidi hadn't heard the end or Lily was certain she'd have gotten a proper noogie. Instead, the Hellcat seemed to be digesting the first part with little interest.

"Caught up in the moment, that's all," she reiterated, grabbing the popcorn more angrily now, and chewing it with a purposeful stare at the television.

The conversation was over.

* * *

At 2 pm sharp, Lily's phone woke her up. Her head lifted suddenly, like someone had crashed a cymbal over her, and her fingers hurriedly scrambled under the cushion to turn off the alarm that was steadily growing louder as the moments passed.

Shutting it off, Lily bolted up from the couch and started shaking Heidi violently whilst urging "Heidi! Heidi, wake up! We've overslept!"

With her leg draped over the side of the couch and her other foot in the popcorn bowl, Heidi grumbled and shoved Lily away from her barely conscious form. Unexpectedly, Lily toppled over backwards to land on her duff, surprised by the strength that her sleeping friend had demonstrated.

Confused as to why the flurry of hands had stopped so abruptly, Heidi looked up, squinting, and saw Lily on the floor.

"Ow," the tall brunette squeaked as she rolled forward onto her knees to face the couch again and give Heidi one last good shake. "All right, Wonder Woman, it's seriously time to wake up," she said at last, leaving not a scrap of negotiation in her tone. She moved the hair from Heidi's face and stepped over to the window to let in a stream of sunshine that splashed right in Heidi's eyes.

"Grrruuuuumbbuuuummble," Heidi harrumphed, rolling over to put the sun behind her. Tucking herself into a ball, she wiggled into the soft couch cushions in an act of outright defiance.

"All right fine. Sleep through your big interview._ I_ don't care, it's not _my_ career..." Lily said in a lofty and dramatic tone as she opened the closet and started staring at Heidi's clothes. With a finger to her chin, she glanced over the garments once and then started pushing hangers left and right as she tried to pick the perfect ensemble.

Heidi sat up on the couch, her wild locks carrying some of last night's popcorn and couch lint. She scratched her side and yawned, stretching her arms over her head in a languorous, catlike pose.

"Interview?" she asked through her yawn, her words soft and hazy through the mantle of sleep she still clung to.

Nodding, Lily pulled out a brown vest and then pursed her mouth, talking to herself as she critiqued every selection.

"Yes, an interview. I know you've probably had your fill of publicity, but now that you're not a part of the Nexus people are actually curious about you. You're not just the Hellcat to them anymore. They want the facts!" Lily said cheerily, seemingly already very awake for someone who had just woken a few seconds before Heidi.

Heidi curled her lip. "You mean they're gonna ask me a buncha questions about Husky. And Swagger. Yay." she said, her tone as flat as week old soda.

With several garments draped over her arm, Lily emerged from the closet and perched on the edge of the couch, looking down to Heidi. Holding the clothes in her lap, Lily caught Heidi's green gaze and held it.

"You're here for a good reason. If they ask about Husky, tell them everything. If they ask about Swagger, tell them you're teammates. You don't have to answer every question they give you, ok?" she reassured, feeling very much so like she was talking to the younger sister she'd never had.

Nodding, Heidi instantly sobered at her older, wiser friend's advice, and stood from the couch, grinning.

"Mmkay," she said with a nod, hand on her hips as she looked at the clothes Lily had picked out for her. Strangely, this had become a routine that Heidi started to enjoy. With Lily around, she hadn't had to bother a single millisecond over what she was going to wear and could devote more of her energy back to the original task: defeat Wade Barrett. Win Husky.

Heidi stood with her arms out, like a paper doll, ready to be dressed in whatever fun duds Lily told her to wear.

From her perch on the couch, Lily simply laughed and shook her head.

"No, no, you have popcorn in your hair. Take a shower!"

45 minutes later, Heidi was dressed and out the door. Lily had thrown something together: simple and sporty (as she called it), putting Heidi in dark jeans, flat zip-up boots, and a white button-down complete with a black vest over top. Heidi had scoffed at the vest until she saw that it was adorned with delicately stitched skulls and promptly got over it.

With her hands on her thighs, Heidi sat in the front seat of Lily's shiny green sedan and squinted in the sun. The music was on, as it always was with those two, playing songs from their past that they could headbang and sing along to at top volume.

However, Heidi was not singing. She sat there, looking out the window with a distant look, her eyes filling with the California sun; grateful once more to finally be somewhere warm, sunny, and filled with beaches. Her thoughts were elsewhere, drifting along like a bottle on the sea, bobbing from possibility to possibility. What kinds of questions would they ask? How could she trust the journalist? How would she know if she was being duped?

Lily rolled her window down to wish Heidi good luck as she dropped the young girl off at the cafe.

"I'll be back in an hour or so. These things don't take too long. Call me if you need me to stay away longer, all right?" she asked, leaning out the window to wrap her arm around Heidi's waist.

"Does that mean I shouldn't throw this one over my shoulder like I did to Percy?" she asked, grinning like a madman at the thought. Even if Percy had somewhat helped her win back her freedom, she'd never forgive being accused of loving Jack Swagger.

Lily laughed and checked her pin-straight hair in the side-view mirror, peering over the top of her sunglasses.

"Do try to restrain yourself, Wonder Woman," she said with a wink. "Reservation was made for 2 under 'Harris.'" she informed, sitting back into her seat, to take another last look at Heidi. "You look so good. Just relax!" and then, like the true Florida girl she was, Lily tipped her sunglasses back into place and peeled away with the wind in her hair as soon as the light turned green.

After stopping at the podium and giving them her name, Heidi was escorted to the patio in front where a middle aged man was sitting, gabbing on his cell phone, and busily jotting down things on a pad of paper. His hair was gelled so that it looked stiff and flaky, the roots showing signs of grey. He waved his hand at Heidi, telling her he'd be right there, and then continued scribbling down notes on his pad, all the while saying things like, "You got it," and "Oh that's great."

Instantly disliking the fellow, Heidi scooted her chair out and took a seat right as the man finished his phone call. By the time he opened his mouth, Heidi was already burning holes into his skull with her glare.

"OOOOOH my GAWD, I am sorry about that," he said, fanning his face and snapping his fingers to demand another glass of whatever he was drinking. The waiter dispersed before asking Heidi what she wanted and she turned an unforgiving look upon the man, flailing her arm after him to try and grab his attention.

Her scowl turned back to the corporate goon, but soon morphed into a stunned expression as she watched him try to pick something from his teeth with his tongue. Heidi simply arched a brow, looking at him in pure disapproval. She didn't want to imagine how an article from this clown would sound.

Remembering Lily's advice about not having to answer anything she didn't want to, Heidi settled in her chair with a firm eye on the punk.

He carried on though, oblivious to Heidi's distaste for him, though her expression torched with every word he spewed.

"All right, so you're the Hellcat, huh?" he asked with zero interest, his nose buried in the notepad he was hurriedly flipping through. He clearly had other, more important things to do and let Heidi know it as he fiddled with something in his lap.

Incensed, Heidi slammed her fist on the table, causing the silverware to clatter.

"Yeah! Who the HE-"

"Heidi!" a soothing woman's voice cut through the swear that was in the middle of being shouted from the youngest member on the patio.

Looking over to the source of the voice, Heidi saw a woman grinning like she'd invented sunshine and gel pens, and waving to her as if they went way back. The woman looked like Lily's long-lost bohemian sister, dressed in a full-length electric blue sun dress with a large straw woven bag. Her hair was braided loosely so that it hung in a fashionable mess over one of her tan shoulders and a huge chunky bracelet clung to her wrist in the brightest of greens.

"Don't mind Stan, he's just the cameraman," she said, smiling to Heidi. Then, she turned a hawklike glare to the man. "Stan, _why_ have you already made my client angry?" she hissed, her tone taking a nosedive towards frigid as she turned her blue eyes onto her croney.

Stan just shrugged and lifted his camera from his lap, where he'd been hiding it. "Smile," he droned, snapping a photo of Heidi without warning, a candid shot that she could just see the headlines for: _Hellcat Stoned in CA?_

Just as Heidi threw her napkin down to scoot back her chair and give Stan a piece of her mind, the California blonde shot him a look so cold it felt like a bucket of arctic water coursing through her veins just to watch. He immediately recoiled, and then, like a child being told what to do by someone who wasn't their mother, Stan scooted a few paces away and started setting up the camera.

Once he was out of earshot, Heidi seemed to relax much more and noticed that the woman was already typing things on her teeny tiny green laptop. She looked calm, as if dealing with Stan were simply a part of her day that no longer hindered it from being a good one. With a snicker, Heidi had to think that Stan was much like a disobedient pup around a stern master.

After a few moments in which Heidi placed her order for lunch and was brought a large glass of lemonade, Heidi cleared her throat, feeling awkward.

"Uh, I dunno how this works, but aren't you supposed to ask me questions before you write the article?" Heidi asked, trying to word it as politely as possible so that she didn't just blurt out something silly and ruin everything.

An airy laugh lilted on the warm afternoon breeze and the blonde then shut her laptop, fixing Heidi with a warm smile.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I'm just trying to get a head start of my first impression of you, which, might I say, was very well received. Anyone who makes Stan uncomfortable is a friend in my book," she said, quite obviously loud enough so that he could hear.

Grinning at the woman's blatant distaste for her rude colleague, Heidi made herself comfortable in her chair and heaved a sigh of relief.

"My name is Helen, it's very nice to meet you. I've got a lot of questions to ask and _STAN_ will be _SILENTLY_ taking photos of you in the background," she explained, hurling the appropriate words over her shoulder to the cameraman, who simply rolled his eyes and started clicking away.

After the first fifteen minutes, Heidi could hardly_ stop_ talking. Helen was a delightful listener: she laughed in all the right places, smiled when Heidi was talking, and made the interview more like a conversation than a business interaction. The younger blonde with her wild mane explained her relationship with Husky, how Lily had been a huge support for her, and what it had been like fighting against her brother every step of the way. Helen asked once, briefly, about Jack Swagger, but had about 15 text messages from Lily warning her to avoid the subject, and did not press the issue further.

The Hellcat was rubbing her stomach, looking down at the empty plate that had once held her triple decker BLT. The sandwich was long gone and the glass of lemonade held only a black straw and melting ice. The conversation had come to a neat ending and the two were sitting comfortably, enjoying the day and waiting for the check.

Helen lit up a cigarette after asking, "you don't mind, do you?" and leaned back in her chair. Acting as the bridge between California cool and New York business, the journalist toyed with the end of her messy braid for a moment, sighing as she looked at the sun-filled streets and the people strolling by.

"So," Helen continued, blowing a gale of foul smoke up and away from Heidi, who tried not to scrunch her nose too much. "Who's your favorite band?"

Heidi grinned. "That's easy, the Gorillaz. Anyone who hears my entrance music knows what my favorite song and band is. What else ya got?"

"Favorite food?"

"Pickles."

"Baseball team?

"The Devil Rays."

"Fictional character?"

"She-Hulk."

"Celebrity crush?" Helen arched a single, inquisitive brow, hoping to at last have stumped her. 15 texts from Lily couldn't dissuade the talented journalist from scooping out a story if she could.

Baffled, Heidi looked heavenward, trying to rack her brain for someone she thought was cute. Going through her mental catalogue of movies and TV shows was failing her and she was about to say that she simply didn't have a celebrity crush.

Those words, however, never came.

"Thelebrity crush? That'th me, right?"

Leaning on the decorative fence that separated the cafe patio from the street, was Jack Swagger. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat, looking from Heidi to Helen to Stan-the-Cameraman as if he'd unearthed a treasure.

Heidi's cheeks instantly flamed, and she heard the telltale CLICK that assured her Stan was documenting this unexpected encounter.

Helen appeared surprised, but thrilled. "Well this is a pleasant way to shake things up!" she said, motioning Swagger to join them at their table without paying any attention at all to the way Heidi was trying to glare "NO" at her.

Scooting a chair from another table, Swagger aligned it right next to Heidi's and sat down, crowding her space simply because of his size. He looked like a father trying to play tea-time with his daughter's itty bitty furniture, sitting there in that wire framed chair, but Swagger did not seem to notice the awkwardness.

"What are you doing here?" Heidi asked expectantly, looking sharply over to her big, blonde cohort like he were a hobo who had wandered into a classy party. Her cheeks flared with embarrassment and instantly she wanted him to disappear. Showing up was only going to reiterate what she had been trying to convince Lily wasn't true: that she and the All-American American were something more.

Swagger, his big dumb grin intact, looked over at Heidi with a genuine smile. Then, as casual as could be, Swagger grabbed her chair and scooted it closer, wrapping his beefy arm around her in an embrace that he seemed to feel was natural. In the moment it took her to react, Jack's face looked very pleased with himself, almost smirking as he squeezed Heidi to his side.

The sudden sting of an open handed slap jolted Swagger to attention.

"What are you, STUPID?" Heidi spat, outraged. She muscled her way out of Swagger's grip and stood up so hastily that she knocked her chair over behind her. The look in her eye was insulted and unforgiving. She heard the clicks of the camera from Stan as he took photo after photo of incriminating evidence. The people would certainly never get the truth now. They would be shown a lie!

Heidi was seething in anger as she brought her hand back and popped Jack Swagger right in the mouth, hoping to cure his lisp forever by simply knocking all his teeth out.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? CAN'T YOU SEE THERE ARE CAMERAS AROUND?" she hollered, lifting her foot. Then, with a miraculous kick that she'd been practicing for weeks now under Swagger's tutelage, Heidi sent her instructor toppling over backwards in his chair with her foot pressed into his chest.

Helen and Stan were watching, utterly dumbfounded. Their mouths gaped, ogling the strange display of power and rage from what had, moments ago, been an fiery and engaging young woman.

The ever constant flutter of Stan's camera sounded as Jack stood up. The massive blonde kicked the chair out from behind him and glared down at Heidi, shouting while his face turned red, "WHAT WATH THAT FOR?"

"For ruining my interview!" she hollered back, pushing against his chest with both of her hands to try and scoot him back a few paces. It wasn't working.

A handful of patrons on the patio stood up and backed away from the spectacle, watching from the doorway where a number of waiters were trying to decide whether or not to become involved.

Helen stepped forward, the sun splashing over her electric-blue dress and tawny hair, looking rather like Hippie Beach Barbie. "Hey, now the interview isn't ruined. It's a good thing to have your boy-"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Heidi howled, turning to point her finger at Helen to shut her up before Heidi was forced to do it for her. "Don't say that word. Don't write it down, don't even THINK it!" Her look was savage and Stan clicked a perfect photo of the sudden command the little spitfire was showing. Heidi's eyes practically glowed from behind her messy fringe of bangs, embodying a true Hellcat in that moment.

Helen startled, and then closed her mouth and reached for her green laptop and her woven straw bag to pack up her things. She waved off the one brave waiter who brought the check and then immediately signed the receipt without ever tearing her eyes off of Hellcat and Swagger.

"Heidi, OW, I don't underthtand!" the Oklahoma native protested, swatting away Heidi's flurry of slaps as best he could. It was a lot like trying to fight a violent, blonde cloud and Swagger got knocked a few times, this way and that. However, in a noted difference from his demeanor in the ring, Swagger did not try to hit back.

Heidi simply rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip, panting as she caught her breath, gathering her second wind.

"Of course you don't understand, you're too stupid to even be SEEN with!" she growled with deadly sincerity.

Then she turned to Stan, throwing all of her rage into the look she gave him. He froze, like a middle-aged statue of a man with bad taste, his finger still on the trigger of his camera. Stan gulped, looking nervously from the Hellcat to Swagger, who looked a bit worse for wear.

Then, in a display of true wit, Stan turned on the spot, and ran as fast as his patent leather shoes would take him.

Swagger, for a moment, looked like Heidi's comments had hit home, striking a chord deep inside that he seemed to listen to for a moment, pacing back and forth with his hands on his hips.

"Thtupid?" he asked at last, shooting a hateful look towards Heidi. She had indeed struck a nerve. "THTUPID? How dare you inthult my name, my legathy? Do you even know what an All-American ITH? It'th a thuperthar! What are you, HEIDI? Huh? Who are YOU? You're jutht thome annoying little thithter who doethn't know when to shut up and GO HOME!" Swagger finished, feeling proud of himself as he folded his arms over his chest and glowering down at her. There was no smirk on his face, however. Not much of him was enjoying the fight.

Heidi's mouth dropped as he cut her down. "WHAT?" she shrieked in indignation, her eyes clenched shut, fists squeezed tight as she tried to recover from such a harsh blow. "You... you're no different from any other croney out here in the WWE! You're such a terrible MORON on the mic that no one gives you the time of day, and the only reason people even CARE about you anymore is because you're with ME!" she shouted, driving her thumb into her chest as she said the last part.

Swagger looked like he was about to hit her but thought the better of it. For a moment, they simply stared at one another, huffing and puffing in the California sun that suddenly seemed too hot and too bright. Heidi stood her ground, refusing to give even a centimeter to someone who had just come outright and insulted everything about her that he'd come to know.

"Fine," he said, holding his face calm and cool, trying to strip it of any emotion. "I'll thtop helping you then. No more ringthide, no more training, no more free advithe, nothing!" he shouted, throwing his hands down as if to flick filth from them. He was washing his hands clean of her.

Finally, he'd had enough.

"But the GM!" she rebutted, her face suddenly morphing from outrage to horror. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. She wasn't supposed to lose him as an ally!

A car honked and broke the tension instantly.

"Hey Heidi, oh hi Jack!" Lily greeted, waving from the corner where she'd parked her car. She stepped out of the green sedan and shuffled quickly across the sidewalk in her tall, gold heels.

Her smile faded as she got closer and saw Swagger storming away, scattering patrons and waiters alike. Feeling nervous now, Lily stopped walking so fast and looked around to take in the whole scene: waiters avoiding the area, chairs overturned, the whole patio cleared: there had been a fight. And, as much as she didn't want to admit it, Lily had a pretty good idea who was at fault.

"Heidi, what's going on? Is everything ok?" she asked, stepping tentatively forward and placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. She looked over with care when Heidi didn't pull away from her, or stiffen to try and get Lily to stop with the comfort.

"I'm FINE," Heidi lied, in a strong voice. She sniffed and then quickly wiped her hand over her face. "Let's go."


	18. Greasy Handlebars

**All right, long awaited, I know. Writing plus living is hard! Hope you like.**

* * *

"OHU! Swagger is not looking good tonight!"

Lily cringed as she watched the match spiral quickly out of the All-American American's control. He was staggeringly awful, much to her chagrin, and spent more time stomping and flailing than actually facing his opponent.

"Yes, I must say... this is truly the worst I've ever seen him perform," Lily admitted with a heavy sigh, holding her elbows with her arms tucked against her chest. She felt guilty. Knowing what was wrong with him and pretending not to was the same thing as lying, and Lily was a terrible liar.

She knew full well what Jack's problem was: Heidi. He had been doing all sorts of boneheaded things in the days that had passed since that fateful interview at the cafe, but, the crown jewel in his jester's cap was challenging the Miz for his title. After a bit of GM filibuster, Teddy Long and the anonymous RAW GM had both agreed for the match to take place the next Monday.

And there they were.

Lily watched the Oklahoma haystack stumble perfectly into the WWE Champion's arms through squinted eyes, and remained silent despite the headset on her head. In a strange turn of events, Lily found she actually___ wanted _Jack to succeed, but there was no chance for that as the Miz set him up for his finisher...

The Miz kicked Swagger's feet out from underneath him and the All-American American went down, face-first, into the mat.

Lily closed her eyes, but still heard the mighty, skull-crushing THUMP.

After that, the only struggle the Miz had was rolling his haystack of an opponent over to hook the leg.

"ONE, TWO, THREE!"

The crowd booed and cheered alike, seemingly split perfectly down the middle in their loyalties.

Alex Riley came from ringside and handed the Miz his enormous belt, which he immediately tucked over his shoulder, like Linus and his trusty blanket. Stroking the gold pair of W's, the Miz stood with his feet planted, flashing his duck lips to the crowd, and let Alex Riley thrust his hand into the air and point at him like he'd just discovered land after an eternity at sea.

Leaving together, A-Ri and the Miz strut backwards up the ramp until they were out of sight.

"The question I want to know is why wasn't the Hellcat at ringside? A match like this could have changed the face of Jack Swagger's career. I thought for sure we'd see her," Jerry commented, disappointment dripping from his words.

Lily sighed. "You're right, you'd think she would at ___least_ have shown up." In an effort to stop herself from blurting out the whole ugly truth, Lily simply shook her head minutely and said no more.

Swagger hoisted himself up from the mat looking defeated and unhappy. His face hung with a drooping scowl, his blue eyes roving over Lily for a split second as he slowly, dejectedly, climbed between the ropes and dropped to the apron.

Lily's eyes followed him as he slumped towards the ramp to exit, shouting back insults at people who were taunting his stunning annihilation. The match had lasted less than five minutes and his cheeks flamed properly with embarrassment. Being escorted from the ring on a wave of boos was hardly new, but losing a title match after being called stupid...

Something red caught his eye and Swagger looked over at a sign a teenage girl with pigtails brandished: it was a picture from last week of him and Heidi kissing, and it read, in flashy ruby glitter, "TEAM HELLCAT FOREVER!"

The girl jumped up and down excitedly as he took notice of her, waving her sign and squealing as her black pigtails flounced. In her girlish enthusiasm, she could not help but step closer to the barrier as Swagger came towards her, the lights overhead failing to capture the brightness of her smile. This was the moment that every fan dreamt of – he was going to take her sign! Or autograph it!

But, in a sudden burst of speed, Jack reached forward and stole the sign, giving a bear-like roar as he tore it from the girl's hands. The Titantron played a jumbo sized image of the sign in all its crimson, glittering glory. Then, with a snarl like a dog who had been kicked too many times, Swagger ripped the sign in two and threw the halves to the ground, where he began stomping them repeatedly.

The crowd was confused but did not stay that way for long as the lights dimmed for a moment and then Heidi's entrance music began to play.

Looking up, both surprised and guilty, Swagger watched as Heidi emerged from backstage. His eyes were trained on her as she came out, dancing to her song and jumping up and down to get the crowd on their feet. As she passed Jack she gave him a fleeting glance like she'd done nothing more than walk by a garbage can overflowing with rubbish, and then was gone, sliding into the ring ungracefully on her chest.

Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, an outfit that _Heidi_ had put together this time, the short, wild-haired woman caught a microphone the ref tossed at her. She lifted it immediately to her lips and started pacing around the ring a bit, looking down, as if she had something to confess.

"I have an apology to make."

Swagger stopped and turned around, his face on the verge of forgiveness. He waited by the Titantron, hoping to hear the words he'd been _expecting_ since she made the awful statements.

The crowd quieted down and Heidi took a deep breath.

"So here I am... back here in the ring to give another one of these 'heartfelt' apology speeches," she began, her tone ironic as she shook her head and she thew 'heartfelt' into air quotes. She lifted her gaze and showed that she was wearing a smile as she spoke. "But I can't deny what I did. Even if I wanted to, you'd all never buy it - you all saw the evidence. You all saw me last week as I tried to keep Santino and Kozlov from winning their match." She stopped and let the crowd give their honest reaction, most booing the memory. She even nodded in approval, and took the large wave of boos like a champ. "And you all saw what happened...Tamina laid me flat!"

As he heard to whom the Hellcat's apology was directed, Swagger looked enraged, and then turned on his heel and stomped away, seemingly accompanied by his own personal storm cloud.

The clips played of the match last week when Heidi had still been shackled to her black-and-yellow captors, filling the arena with the images of Tamina delivering an inspiring flip to the Hellcat. A few more clips played, showing off Santino's hip toss, Husky's beaten face, and finally, the Hellcat again, sprawled on the ground with a hazy look in her eye.

The Hellcat just grinned and shook her head. "Yup. As a member of the Nexus I made a deal with the devil, and let me tell you, the devil don't play fair. But, I'm here to make amends, since I know how badly betrayal can sting."

A picture of Husky flashed across the Titantron for a moment, and then disappeared.

Heidi paused and looked around the ring, amazed that these people were actually listening, and then let out a laugh to break the tension. "But who wants any more of this mushy crap? I won't waste any more time! Santino, I am sorry for trying to prevent you from giving my brother the Cobra. Kozlov, I am sorry I even thought about getting involved, and Tamina... I had hoped to meet you under different circumstances. I hope you'll give me a chance to prove to you how sorry I actually am by allowing me to accompany you to ringside for your next match!"

The crowd applauded, happy to have their faith in the girl restored, but they all lost their heads as the theatrical music for Santino played and the tag-team emerged from backstage. Between them was Tamina, proudly wearing her Santino t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and a pair of shorts, looking as dominant as ever.

Heidi watched with a hopeful face as they descended to the ring and joined her inside. Kozlov didn't look any different than he did in the bowling alley long before she ever betrayed them so she didn't worry so much about the Moscow Mauler. Instead, her eyes volleyed between Santino, who was glaring, hurt, from underneath the heavy stripe of his unibrow, and Tamina.

The tall, impressive diva took the microphone first, looking at Hellcat for a moment. Her look was not harsh, or intimidating. No, Tamina was sizing Heidi up, trying to pinpoint whether or not she could be trusted.

All eyes were on the two women in the ring, who faced off like sumo wrestlers.

However, all attention shifted suddenly to Santino as he flung himself forward, letting out a wail and gathering Heidi in a hug that smashed the whole side of her face to his red and blue onesy. He started petting her hair as he wailed to the ceiling and squeezed her into Heidi-jam.

"WE CAN BE FRIENDS AGAIN!" he bawled.

Wide eyed and suffocating, Hellcat gasped and tapped out of the hug furiously, trying to wrest herself away as her face turned ever more purple. Santino, however, simply thought she was reciprocating his sincerity and continued to blubber, his face scrunched as his hug endured.

It was Kozlov who finally came over and put his hand on Santino's shoulder to grab his attention. Santino looked up innocently and let Hellcat drop.

With a huge gasp, Heidi doubled over and caught her breath with a series of heaving pants that made her look like a sail in the wind. Tamina seemed to watch her more carefully now. Her lips pressed together as if she were still mulling things over, but finally stepped forward and lifted the microphone.

"I accept, Hellcat. You've got one chance to correct a very bad first impression."

The arena, including Jerry Lawler started clapping vociferously when Hellcat and Tamina shook hands, smiling at one another as they took the first step towards friendship.

Santino was still blubbering in the background but wiped his eyes when Kozlov looked over, and put on his happy-go-lucky grin once more. The Russian powerhouse just shook his head, but remained next to his partner. His sharp, birdlike eyes pierced Hellcat once in a very clear warning of what their terms were: get involved again, make another enemy.

"THANK YOU!" Hellcat hollered zealously, grinning so wide her face should have cracked down the middle. "I won't let you down, really..."

The lights went out.

Hellcat stopped speaking and froze, tense. Now she got a taste of her own medicine since she had entered with similar tactics weeks ago when she started this whole mess of a trip. She had to rely on her ears so Hellcat took a few steps towards the entrance ramp, leaning over the ropes to listen for the sound of footsteps.

They did not disappoint.

A gasp was shared from seat to seat as the lights came back on to the sight of all members of the Nexus streaming down the ramp like a pack of wild dogs.

However, Heidi was already prepared for them. She groped her way in the dark to the nearest turnbuckle and was poised carefully on the top rope, crouched low so that she could leap farther and take down the first of the Nexus to get within range.

"LOOK AT HELLCAT GO!" Lily roared, happy to see Heidi do something she approved of. Up until now, Lily had been disappointed with her friend's behavior but, ever determined, Hellcat was putting on one hell of a charged performance.

It was Slater who looked up just in time to see Hellcat launch herself from the top rope. She flew, the lights blinding her target as they turned her into nothing more than a girl-shaped silhouette that came closer, and closer, and closer...

"OUCH!" Lawler called out, watching as Hellcat flattened Slater. She landed on him at the shoulders and then the both of them rode the short trip to the ground.

However, the victory was not secure. The rest of the Nexus were upon them then, swarming up the stairs and into the ring, where the tag-team duo and Tamina were standing their ground as best they could, backed into a corner.

Husky struck first, using his incredible strength to grab Santino and topple him head-over-feet over the ropes to land, painfully, on the apron a few steps away from where Heidi was still lying over Slater.

Kozlov moved forward to clothesline Wade, but with the help of McGillicutty and Otunga, the three of the Nexus bested the Moscow Mauler. He went over the ropes backwards, falling slowly, like a tall tree, with Wade shoving continually on his chest to make sure the Russian didn't come back up.

When he landed, Santino rushed over to help him up.

Hellcat hopped up from the ground, where Slater was groaning and holding his head.

"What's wrong, crying over your HAIRDO?" Hellcat taunted as she stomped her boot down on his face. She was out for blood now, a true savagery in her green eyes as she scrambled to the ring just in time to see a whole lot of red and a whole lot of Russian topple up and out.

Tamina, who was smarter than to let a posse of dopes lay so much as a finger on her, hopped to the apron and landed in front of Justin Gabriel with her hands on her hips. The two of them beheld one another for a split second and then attacked. Tamina grabbed him by the back of the neck and brought her knee up to his face, buying Santino and Kozlov time to regroup.

"Oh they are not happy with Hellcat," Lawler said, watching with a shake of his head as Wade, Husky, and Otunga stood in the ring, waiting for Hellcat to dare enter. On the apron, Slater and Gabriel had their hands full with Santino and Kozlov while Tamina held her own against Michael McGillicutty, who was looking at her as if she were contaminated. She elbowed him sharply in the shoulder and the fight was on.

"No Jerry, they're not happy with Hellcat, way to state the obvious," Cole droned in his sarcastic voice. "She's been interrupting matches and giving them trouble since she arrived here! I'm surprised the GM hasn't done the right thing by putting an end to her little charade."

Lily looked over to Michael Cole for a split second to let him know what she thought before ever opening her mouth. "Until the GM comes out and tells her that he's had enough, I think we can expect to see plenty of her on Raw." Lily stopped suddenly – she had been about to say 'and Smackdown' but was glad she hadn't. Now that Hellcat and Swagger were no longer a functional team, there was no reason for Heidi to appear on that brand.

Hellcat ran around the other side of the ring from where her new friends were fighting off the foul Nexus and hoisted herself into the ring, where Wade, Otunga, and Husky were waiting for her. They all wore expressions of snide determination, like they expected this fight to be over soon and had come with a plan.

"She's in! GET UP HERE!" Wade bellowed to his teammates while never tearing his eyes from Hellcat.

Slater and Gabriel, the speediest of the Nexus, were untangled from their respective fights in a flash and joined their leader in the ring. Michael and David, however, were not so lucky. Santino hurled himself forward and tackled the A-List, David Ontunga onto the apron and Kozlov pounded his great fist on the top of Michael McGillicutty's head to stop any forward momentum he had.

"Here we go, another beat down," Lawler grumped with zero interest, folding his arms and shaking his head at the sight. "I know she barged in and asked for it, but four against one is just low."

"I agree, Jerry. Now we're going to see if Swagger still believes in Team Hellcat and shows up to put a stop to this!" came Lily's hopeful reply.

Cole scoffed. "If he were smart he'd stay out of it. The Nexus are one of the most dominant – "

"GET ME A MICROPHONE!" Wade shouted, so loud he didn't need one to make himself heard.

Hellcat stayed on her toes and bent low, wanting to use as much leverage as possible for the attacks she knew to be coming. Slater charged first with the memory of being levelled by Hellcat fresh in his mind. He was fast, closing the space in seconds, swiping a great arm at her that Hellcat easily ducked beneath. Unaccustomed to fighting smaller opponents, Slater careened into the ropes where Kozlov was waiting. Hellcat crouched low right as the Moscow Mauler pushed Slater with both hands. The One-Man Rock Band flew backwards, stumbling until he tripped over the crouching Hellcat and took out Husky, who was in the process of kicking his sister in the ribs.

Lily laughed so hard that she snorted, covering her mouth quickly while her cheeks turned bright pink. However, she was a broadcaster after all and she countered beautifully with "Talk about some teamwork there!"

Lawler was laughing too, wiping his eyes. "That was a Three Stooges moment that we'll never get again."

By the time a referee retrieved the microphone that Wade demanded, the battle in the ring was turning sharply in the Hellcat's favor. In fact, Wade had his hands full and was unable to catch the microphone. After a pounce from the top rope, she had locked her signature move in on Wade Barrett, the same move that had won Jack Swagger as her ally. Sitting on his shoulders she fixed her legs around the Brit's neck and started to put the squeeze on him, tightening with each passing second.

Wade gripped her knees, trying to pry her off of him like a dog-owner might go at a bothersome tick. He was, aside from her brother, easily the largest opponent in the ring and therefore did not fall victim to her crushing thighs so soon. She was nothing more than a meddlesome little sister who, after tonight, would not be giving the Nexus any more issue.

However, Hellcat was positively roaring with triumph as she locked her only significant move in on the leader of the Nexus, foul Wade Barrett. She felt his pulse through her legs and noticed it was speeding up, but the man beneath her showed no signs of wearing down. All he had to do was fall over backwards and Hellcat's move would turn into a finished Hellcat. Thinking fast, she grabbed two handfuls of his greasy brown hair and yanked with all of her might to the left.

Wade howled in pain, his face scrunched as, to Hellcat's amazement, he staggered to the left and into Husky with full force.

Lily's jaw dropped and she started laughing again, watching as Heidi drove Wade like a greasy British bulldozer into his own teammates. "She's using him like a donkey!" she giggled, wholly amused as she gestured to the ring as if something truly brilliant were happening.

Yanking his hair left and right worked once more, toppling Otunga, but Wade soon reached up to slap the idiot girl's hands away from his hair. By now, the submission hold Heidi had locked around his throat was starting to get to him and his movements became sluggish as his face grew more blue.

Hellcat had no intention of letting loose her enemy until he was good and passed out on the mat. The other members of the Nexus had kept their distance while she had been careening Barrett left and right for a brief moment of glory, but they were professionals and soon grouped back up when they noticed their boss starting to tire as he endured the neck-lock for an inordinate length of time.

With a fierce snarl, Hellcat threw her elbow into McGillicutty's face as he came up from behind to pry her off. Wade was still trying to force her legs from around his neck but his fingers no longer held any real power. Barrett, with his eyes closed to block out the pain and focus on breathing, took a few steps in one direction, aligning himself perfectly for Hellcat to swing a mighty fist into Gabriel's temple.

Just as Heidi was punching Otunga incessantly in the face, a swarm of referees stormed down the ramp to break up the fight.

Wade fell to his knees, still clinging to life, right as a wall of black-and-white shirted men forced the rest of the Nexus back to the ropes. Someone grabbed Hellcat from the back and drug her off of the Brit with his messy and greasy hair sticking up in strange directions that looked peculiarly like handlebars.

The crowd was beside itself with cheers and applause, chorusing "HELLCAT!" as she brushed herself off and stood in the corner above where Santino, Kozlov, and Tamina were gathered on the apron. The three of them had done plenty while Hellcat was busy in the ring, tripping opponents from the apron and otherwise lending helpful hands.

Looking beat but not beaten, Wade stood to his full height and glared at Hellcat with a stern eye, looking at her like she were filth. A line of referees cut the ring in half, putting Husky, Slater, Gabriel, Otunga, and McGillicutty on one side and Wade and Hellcat on the other.

Wade grabbed the microphone he had asked for in the beginning and stood in his half of the ring with Hellcat, who only tore her eyes from him to cast menacing looks to her brother. He circled her like a carrion bird and then jabbed a finger into her clavicle when his face had finally regained its original color.

"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, speaking directly to Hellcat. The fans didn't matter, the commentators didn't matter, even his own team was inconsequential. His face was furious, each line filled with scorn. "I've had enough of you and the rest of the WWE universe has had their fill too. There will be no glorious save for you, Hellcat. Husky isn't leaving, but I'll tell you who is. You. You, Hellcat, and it doesn't matter..."

"OY, will you SHUT UP?" Hellcat boomed, grabbing his hand and forcing the microphone to her own lips. "I told you a hundred times, I ain't leavin' unless I've got Husky in tow so pucker up and get USED TO IT!"

The Nexus rushed the wall of refs but were pushed back as they held their ground, forcing the battle to remain between Barrett and Hellcat. Wade ripped his arm from her grasp and was about to say something else when the lights flashed and the telltale DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO played.

The whole arena booed as Michael Cole stood up to read the message. He looked bored, as if the feud in the ring were the last thing he wanted to see or read anything about. Opening the laptop, he cleared his throat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. I have just received an email from the anonymous Raw general manager. And I quote, your vigilante days are over, Hellcat. The time has come to make a decision."

Hellcat's face drained of color, her insides twisting into complicated knots as she hung onto every single word that Michael Cole read as if they were her lifeline.

Cole carried on. "You and Barrett will face off in a match at next week's pay-per-view in a TLC cage match." The crowd went berserk at the news and it took several minutes for their Hellcat chant to die in order for Cole to continue reading the rest of the stipulations. "There will be no disqualifications, no count outs and no tap outs. Barrett, if you win then Hellcat will be permanently banned from WWE." Heidi rolled her eyes. "But, Hellcat, if you come out victorious then you will be signed to the WWE, where you will be allowed contact with your brother."

Wade sniffed at the stipulations and nodded slowly, mulling over the ideas in his head. In a steel cage with any number of heavy weapons at his disposal, the GM had all but kicked Hellcat out right then and there.

He licked his lips and then, with a smile too arrogant to be allowed, he turned to Hellcat. Reaching his hand out to grab hers, he yanked her close, leaning down so that their foreheads could press together in a sweaty clash of scowls.

"I accept."

* * *

**Read and review! FEED THE MONSTAH!**


	19. Haulin' Harrisment

**Ok, so I know it's been a while, but this is so worth it. This is the second to last chapter to my story, so buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a RIDE!**

**Thanks for sticking with me. This story will have a part II, but part I is coming to an end.**

* * *

"Heidi, come on! We've got to be checked out in ten minutes!" Lily encouraged as she dashed from the bathroom, smelling like honeysuckle perfume and hastily fastening a long, dangling gold earring.

With her head in the closet, yanking clothes from the hangers and stuffing them into her open suitcases, Heidi said, "I'm working on it!" and continued to toss things haphazardly into her luggage. It made an amusing picture to see clothes fly out from the closet one after the other and land in misshapen piles around or near her suitcases.

Lily tutted as she looked over and saw the cavalier treatment of such fine clothes, clothes that she and Alberto del Rio had thought Heidi needed. But, Heidi's habits were anything but news to her so she kept her thoughts to herself and made a mental note to purchase an iron.

As she was zipping up her bathroom bag, which was as large as her ordinary suitcase, Lily looked furtively over to Heidi, who was scrambling now to shove all her clothes into the bags lined up for them. Her friend was excited but something about her tactless haste indicated that she was nervous as well. Tomorrow's pay-per-view was going to be the single biggest night of Heidi's career... perhaps of her life, and that fact had apparently not escaped Hellcat.

"Hey," Lily called out, kneeling to help Heidi pack her bags. "You're not nervous, are you?" she asked casually, knowing the answer already, but pretending not to so that her friend didn't feel attacked.

Heidi zipped up a bag and then set to work on another, grabbing a few pairs of pants and cramming them into the nearest duffel.

"Of course not," she answered automatically.

Lily cleared her throat, grabbing Heidi's attention.

"Oh all RIGHT, I'm so anxious I could explode. There! I admitted it, now don't make me do it again," she huffed good naturedly, standing up once she was all packed. She slung her duffel over her shoulder and grabbed the other two bags she'd acquired from del Rio and was set to go, grateful that they were taking Lily's car or else they'd pay an arm and a leg in airline baggage fees.

Lily smiled and hugged Heidi around the neck, leaning over so that she didn't accidentally topple her friend over with her heavy bags. Putting her hands on her shoulders, Lily shook a little. "You're going to be great. Don't think about the contract, just think about Husky, all right? He needs you more than ever so you've got to be strong."

"Pfft, STRONG I've got. It's a plan I'm missing. If I have to put that crooked-faced, chicken-legged goon through a table then I've got to bring my A game. Did you know that he's literally twice my size?" Heidi asked in astonishment, as if she'd just learned the information.

Arching a brow comically, Lily gave a little laugh and grabbed her two white suitcases. "Well yes, it's my job to announce everyone's stats. I can't believe you're just figuring this out, Heidi!" she said, slightly disbelievingly. To think that she had been battling Wade Barrett for weeks now and just realized that two of her equalled one of him.

"What?" Heidi asked, walking towards the door in front of Lily.

The conversation ended however as Heidi struggled to open the door. She pushed down the handle and yanked but it didn't budge. Not the handle. Not the door. Figuring that she had misjudged her strength what with the heavy bags strewn about her, Heidi tried again, but again to no avail.

"What's the matter?" Lily asked curiously, peering over her shorter friend's shoulder to see if perhaps the red or green blinking lights would tell them that there was a problem. The light flashed red every time.

"I don't know," Heidi replied, perplexed. "It won't move at all, I can't even pull the handle!" she explained, slamming her hand down on the gold handle to show that, indeed, it was quite immovable.

From the other side of the door, a muffled laugh was heard.

Enraged, Heidi lifted on her tip toes and pressed her eye to the peephole, pounding her fist against the door as she saw Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater giving her Cheshire cats grins.

"What have you done? LET ME OUT!" she screamed, hammering her fist against the door. Her antics only served to amuse the three Nexus further, laughing to themselves and looking at one another, proud of their plan and how infallibly they'd executed it.

Wade got close to the peephole, leaning down to see the big green eye glaring back at him. "We took care of the men behind the front desk and put your room under lockdown. Say goodbye, Hellcat. This is the last time we're ever going to see each other. You'll miss your match, you'll lose your brother, and I will remain the leader of the most dominant group the WWE has ever seen!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Lily breathed, dropping her bags and slapping her palm against the door. "Wade, listen to me! Stop being so underhanded. All it's going to take is a phone call to the front desk to get us out so you may as well open the door."

Wade just guffawed as Lily tried to reason with him behind her barricade. "I hear you in there, Ms. Stark, and I assure you that there will be no phone calls to save you, or your pathetic ward. Enjoy your hotel room; you'll be in there a long time."

And with that, Heidi watched in horror as the three of them walked out of sight, leaving them there to rot.

Fruitlessly, Heidi continued to struggle with the handle, jiggling it up and down with a forceful hand and yanking back on it so hard that she flew back and landed on her duffel.

Meanwhile, Lily alighted to the edge of her pristine bed and picked up the receiver from the phone on the table between the beds. The dial tone still worked and she smirked, glad that she had called Barrett's bluff. There was no way they could just waltz into the front desk and convince the hotel clerks to lockdown their room! She'd solve this problem calmly, with her wits about her...

The phone kept ringing and ringing and Lily started to tap her foot impatiently, coiling the phone cord around her fingertip as she waited for the people behind the desk to finally pick up her call.

After 5 minutes, she forfeited the call and pushed the receiver onto the cradle with more oomf than usual.

"We're stuck," she groaned.

Heidi's attempts to wrest open the door had done nothing more than exhaust her. She was now lying down with her eyes widely fixed on the ceiling as her chest rose up and down from the effort of actively suppressing her rage.

Lying on the floor, surrounded by luggage, Heidi's mind instantly wandered to Jack Swagger, who could certainly help break down the door. He had a decent kick and could probably solve their problem in no time...

Heidi sat up suddenly, drawing her phone from her pocket as her fingers flew over the menu and contacts to dial the personal cell phone of none other than the All-American American.

"Who are you calling?" Lily asked. As far as she knew, Heidi didn't have any true allies in the WWE anymore who weren't already on their way to New York City, where the pay-per-view was set to take place in the infamous Madison Square Garden.

The phone rang a few times, enough to make Heidi believe that the call was going to voicemail when she heard the CLICK that signalled that someone had picked up. There was silence for a moment and then she heard the sound of slow, steady breaths on the other end.

"Jack! I'm REALLY sorry, but I need your help...!"

"Don't call me again," he declared grumpily, sounding indignant and sick to death of the person on the other end.

As Heidi pulled her phone away from her cheek, the call had already ended. She stared at her cell for a moment, contemplating regret for what all she'd said to Swagger after he'd helped her so much to train and prepare for her big conflict in the ring. A small voice in the back of her head blurted out that she was obviously crazy about him, or else that guilty wrenching feeling in her gut wouldn't have been there, but she just sighed once and returned her phone.

"Voicemail," she lied, not looking to Lily as she stood up and squared off with the door, hands on her hips as she tried to outsmart her current scenario.

Lily wasn't close enough to overhear the phone conversation but was well-versed enough with Heidi to know that the way she marched over to the rip back the curtains and judge the fall was different somehow. The elation Hellcat had shown when she thought Jack had picked up was too real, too full of delight to have been mistaken for his voicemail, which Lily knew to be little more than a grumbling drone telling the person to leave a message.

"Heidi, we're on the 26th floor," she reminded as Heidi looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"I refuse to miss this match! I have to think of something!" Heidi snapped. Damn the Nexus. Damn Wade Barrett. Why hadn't she assumed that they would strike preemptively? They had all the earmarks of bullies, and bullies didn't fight fair! How could she have been so naive to think that the real fight would take place in the ring? Wade Barrett didn't work like that, especially not if he was headlining a main event.

An hour and a half later, the men that Wade Barrett and the Nexus had knocked out and intimidated into doing their bidding had roused and lifted the lockdown from Heidi and Lily's room. The both of them watched eagerly as the blinking light turned from red to green, signalling they were clear to go.

Once in the parking lot, however, they were greeted by a far worse sight.

"MY CAR!" Lily shrieked, her voice nearing the pitch where only canines would be able to hear her. She shuffled quickly on her heels over to her shiny green sedan and dropped her white bags onto the pavement, gaping at the damage to her precious vehicle.

The windshield had been completely smashed so that the cab was full of broken glass. Where the windshield used to be was now a jagged, dangerous hole.

Heidi's jaw plummeted to the blacktop. "I'M GOING TO KILL THEM ALL!" she promised. She clutched her bags so tightly that her knuckles flared white under the strain and looked around the lot for any signs of the Nexus or a tour bus she could hopefully barter passage onto. She knew Randy Orton had a bus...

"What are we going to do?" Lily asked hysterically, walking around her car to see that the broken glass had shattered all over the ground too, crunching under her white shoes.

"Call a mechanic and have it towed to the nearest shop," Heidi answered, surprisingly calm considering that she was now faced without a way to NYC. As always, she worked best under pressure and was hastily formulating a plan that would help them get to the arena with plenty of time for sleep and food. "Actually, scratch that. You get on the phone with an airline and book two tickets on the next flight, I'll call the mechanic and get us a cab."

Lily nodded, bemoaning her wrecked car and all of the freedom that came with it as she pulled out her cell phone and started making arrangements for their flight.

However, after only a few moments on the phone, Lily learned another bit of tragic news.

"What do you mean there are no more flights to New York City? More people fly there every day than pass through this town!" she argued in complete incredulity. The Nexus surely were not able to pull the same antics at the airport as they had at the hotel without risk of imprisonment, so Lily refused to accept that there were simply no more flights.

Heidi looked over anxiously and put the mechanic on hold, listening to what seemed to be much more important news.

"I don't care if we sit together or if we're on the same flight, but we have to fly to New York today!" she explained frantically, pacing in front of her car with a hand pressed against her forehead as the entire day continued to crumble around their feet. "Yes, I'm willing to pay extra for the bags!"

A few seconds later, Lily hung up and inhaled once, slowly letting the air out through her mouth in an effort to calm herself. She turned to look at Heidi, who was still waiting on the line with the mechanic, who was grumbling things about customers.

"There are no flights today. The earliest I could get you on a plane is 3am tomorrow morning, where you'll have four stops with a layover at least 2 hours at each. That'll put you into Madison Square Garden immediately from the plane with no time to warm up, practice, or change," she explained.

Heidi clicked the phone shut and exhaled through puffing cheeks. Perhaps she wouldn't need the time to warm up if she could concoct a truly stellar plan on the plane and over her many layovers, but that seemed rather unlikely.

"I don't know what to do, Heidi. I really don't! I'm so sorry,"

"Hey!" Heidi interrupted, knitting her brows together. "Don't be sorry. You help me out and look what its gotten you, a morning spent locked in a room and a car full of broken glass!"

Just then the rumble of a loud, old engine roared from behind and Heidi threw her duffel bag to the ground to join the graveyard of luggage, preparing for a fight. She knew that roar. It was the roar of a 1980 Ford Bronco.

Husky's truck.

Pulling up beside them, Husky shifted into park and let the engine idle, spitting out an occasional puff of blue smoke from the tailpipe. His face was grim and his eyes looked somehow smaller, as if he were looking at his ex-girlfriend and sister from much further away.

"COME TO FINISH THE JOB, YOU LOWLIFE LAPDOG?" Heidi bellowed, cracking her knuckles in front of her and then shaking her hands. The last time she had faced Husky in a one-on-one match had been the year she graduated high school and though she had put up a helluva fight, Husky came out triumphant.

This time though, Hellcat was certain she'd have the upper hand. What with the adrenaline pumping through her veins she wouldn't feel the pain of broken glass in her back, or the suffocating press of her rotund brother smooshing her into the blacktop.

Lily stared at Husky in the truck that was a little too familiar for her tastes. He made no move to step on the gas and run down his plucky little sister, nor did he seem intent to say much. His lips were thin and shut, his eyes narrow, but determined.

When Husky opened the driver's side door, Heidi wiggled her fingers, looking rather like a bull scraping its hooves in preparation for a massive forward assault.

"It just FIGURES that you'd be the one to seal the deal. You're such a TRAITOR, Husky! I can't even believe you...!" Heidi hurled insults at him, her feet planted so hard that it seemed as if the velocity of speaking her mind was becoming physically taxing. "Well come on then, let's have it!" she urged bitingly.

Husky walked forward silently making a beeline for Heidi as she stood in a fine starting position: knees soft, feet solid, hands in front, eyes trained on his middle – just the way he had taught her. She appeared furious, as if she'd expected nothing but the absolute worst from him. It became clear then.

To her, he was no better than Wade. In fact, perhaps she thought him worse.

Without letting that weigh him down, Husky grabbed three suitcases in one hand and then gathered the others under his free arm. He left a cold, lingering look on his sister before turning towards his Bronco.

Stunned at the strange turn of events, Lily clicked hastily over to the back of the truck and pulled open the stubborn hatch and then expertly wiggled the handle to let the tailgate drop. As Husky piled their luggage into his trusty truck, Lily regarded him with a new set of eyes, curious as to what the deal was but confident that he was not trying to dupe them.

He heaved the heavy tailgate back up and then let the hatch drop. Looking over to Lily, the two of them paused, shielded by the bulk of his Bronco to share a knowing look that she thought he'd forgotten how to give. Struck, Lily just looked up at him, the scene familiar and somehow very foreign.

Husky cleared his throat and climbed back into the truck to pull it ahead and shift into reverse, backing up to Lily's bumper. Without a word, he opened the door again and walked to the back with a jack and a chain in his hands, and in no time he had attached Lily's sad and wounded sedan to the hitch on the back of his Bronco.

Heidi just watched, skeptical of his sudden generosity. Her arms buckled over her chest so tightly that she hunched as she leaned against Lily's car. This was just the sort of thing she could count on Husky to do – spend years being a jerk and then pull through at the last minute when all other plans had been flushed down the crapper.

Lily felt lightheaded. Husky wasn't exactly being a gentleman, but he had never been the most charming of guys even before he'd joined the Nexus. Husky was a rough and tumble sort of man who preferred to show his caring through laughter and making himself useful. Hitching her car up and silently demanding that they ride with him was as close to an apologetic minstrel with bouquets of roses that Husky would get.

"Heidi, we've got to go with him. I can't miss the match any more than you can, and I've got something really great prepared for you," Lily urged, walking over and putting her arm around her surrogate little sister as Husky waited in the truck.

"I'm not getting in that truck with him. He'd probably drive it off a cliff, or take us to the wrong place. He's a part of the Nexus; you know their slogan: you're either Nexus or against us. I ain't Nexus, Lil," she looked over, her eyes very serious. "And neither are you."

Lily sighed.

"What happened to the girl who had all the plans figured out? Husky can't veer off course just for us, he's under contract as much as I am, and his boss is in the main event at tomorrow's pay-per-view. The fact that he's even offering to help should tell you something about how much of Husky is still alive inside of him!" she whispered, looking over to the truck for a moment before returning her attention to her stubborn blonde pal. "Well I'm going," she said gently. Lily gave Heidi a one-armed hug and then clicked slowly to the Bronco.

Groaning, Heidi threw her hands up in defeat and stomped to the passenger's door. Wrenching it open, she climbed over the front seat to fall into the back, where she laid down with her feet propped against the window, amongst the luggage.

With a sigh of relief, Lily climbed into the Bronco and shut the door, hoping beyond all hopes that this road trip wasn't going to be the death of all of them.

Husky maintained his reticence all the way out of the city and well into the hundreds of miles of highway that lay before them on their cross-country trip. Heidi sulked in the backseat with her headphones blaring metal so noisily that Lily could only imagine the damage being done to her eardrums.

Overall, the atmosphere in the car was tense. Thick. Awkward. Lily kicked off her shoes and sat with her legs tucked beneath her into the seat, remembering all too well what it was like to be in the captain's chair of this Ford Bronco back when she and Husky had been something more than people linked by Heidi.

Back when they'd been in love.

Everything was as familiar as her own car, which bumped along forlornly behind them. The dashboard had collected dust, as it always did, and there was a CLUNK that sounded every time they turned too hard to the left, and the speakers in the back only worked when you blasted the radio at full volume. Even the seats retained their smell that Lily had forgotten was quintessentially Husky. The place smelled like leaves and some sort of masculine deodorant that Lily had always liked.

With his eyes on the road ahead, Husky shifted into overdrive and gripped the steering wheel, deadset on keeping his silence.

Lily didn't know what she had expected, some sort of heartfelt apology, or a gushing confession that he'd missed her, but Husky kept his gaze set forward, towards the horizon, and offered no such concession. She fiddled with the hem of her tweed pencil skirt, crossing and uncrossing her legs at the ankle when she'd held her position for too long, and watched as the countryside passed her by.

They were well into farmland across the midwestern Bible belt when Lily looked back to check on Heidi. She had not moved much since she had dumped herself into the back, and seemed to have the same mind as Husky as to how to survive the trip, for Lily found her quite asleep. With an arm draped over her eyes to shield her from sunlight flickering behind telephone poles, Heidi's breathing was too slow and even to be wakeful.

Lily returned to her seat, heaving a sigh as she leaned her elbow against the door and her cheek on her hand. Her eyes closed for a moment, raking her hands through her pin-straight brown hair that she'd put up in a simple half-ponytail for the day as her dangling gold earrings tossed the reflection of the sun around the cab.

"Is she asleep?"

Lily opened her eyes and looked over. Husky was looking at her guilelessly for a second before he turned his eyes back to the road. So now he was talking?

"Yes, quite," she answered with another casting glance over the seat to make sure that Heidi didn't stir or show any other signs that her slumber was contrived.

"Is she drooling?" Husky pressed further, knowing full well what kind of sleeper his kid sister was.

Lily checked. "A bit."

Husky heaved a huge sigh and visibly relaxed in his seat, cracking his neck as he settled himself. "About time."

Curiously, Lily tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. "You mean you've been waiting for her to? Why?"

Husky turned to his ex-girlfriend with a look that begged her to rethink her question. "Because I know all too well how to avoid fighting with her. If I don't rise to her bait then she'll get sick of it and give up." He looked into the rearview mirror where Heidi was sleeping soundly. "As you can see, my elder brother tricks have worked like a charm."

Lily couldn't help but giggle a bit behind her hand at the irrefutable logic. Also, it warmed her heart to hear that Husky still knew Heidi well enough to outsmart her using her own tendencies to his favor. It meant that he was still Husky somewhere under there, buried under months with the Nexus and Wade Barrett. For the first time since he had dumped her, Lily found herself wishing he would open up like they had long ago. The four years of their relationship had been effortless, simply because of the chemistry between them and she was certain that there had to be some spark of familiarity left.

"We've come a long way from Brooksville," Lily began somewhat timidly, hoping that he would be swept into the flow of conversation with her instead of defiantly resisting like he had earlier. There wasn't much she could think to talk about that wouldn't hack him off. Talking about the Nexus would touch a nerve, talking about her hectic morning would only lead to accusations, and Heidi was already too close for comfort for him.

Husky appeased her unspoken worries with a snort of laughter. "The Beast has too," he said, patting the dusty dashboard as he used his longtime nickname for the Bronco. The two of them shared a smile and immediately jumped into nostalgia.

"Do you remember that time you were so convinced that Luke Fellram had stolen your football pads that you and Jimmy Harvot tossed him into the back of The Beast and drove him to the reservoir?" Lily asked, remembering the incident with startling clarity.

Husky laughed heartily, his round cheeks pulling high, and nodded.

"Yeah, you got so mad at me that you refused to cheer at that night's game in protest. Fellram was fine, by the way," he added, looking over to her with his eyes crinkled in a grin.

Lily patted her leg and laughed towards the ceiling, happy to remember old times with someone who had helped craft the majority of them.

"Well I stand by that decision! The reservoir was six miles out of town and you just left him there!"

"Hey, as it turns out he did steal my football pads. Found 'em when Jimmy and I broke open his locker, so he deserved that six mile hike. And what about you, huh? I remember you kicking Marjorie Lewis from the cheerleading squad because she was too fat," Husky teased, every now and then looking from the road to the lovely woman in his passenger's seat. He never thought she'd be here with him again, especially not in The Beast, and certainly not with Heidi.

The Three Amigos were back. But, for now, he was perfectly happy to let it just be the two of them.

Lily gasped at the accusation and turned to face him more fully. "That is a lie, Husky Harris, and you know it! Marjorie wanted to be at the top of the pyramid and we just didn't have the infrastructure to support such a demand," she replied airily, turning her nose up in clear jest.

"Uh huh. Sounds to me like she was too fat for the cheerleading squad, but whatever you say, captain. I'm sure she went away convinced that she'd be better at baton twirling or flags or something."

"Actually, I think she did join the marching band..." Lily said, touching her finger to her chin as she tried to think back.

Their eyes met and the two of them burst into laughter, falling back into their routine with ease.

"Oh, and who could forget Heidi in that wrestling uniform," Lily sounded as if she were retching, making a face as she remembered the truly horrible purple singlet and the matching purple headgear.

It didn't occur to her until after she'd said something that perhaps bringing up Heidi was a poor choice, but it was impossible to remember Husky without remembering Heidi along with them.

Husky didn't seem bothered in the slightest though. "I more remember the hell she gave administration to let her onto the team."

"Oh yeah," Lily said, the memory coming back to her with Husky's help. "Didn't she demand a tryout and flatten some junior boy in her weight class?"

Husky shook his head. "Nope. The weight class above her. I mean, he was only about 10 pounds heavier, but she gave him a hip toss and then locked the arm and had him tapping out in no time."

Lily glanced sidelong at Husky, feeling delight as she heard the pride in his voice. Of course, any victory of Heidi's had come from her years of unofficial training with Husky, who won the State Wrestling Championship in his senior year – the year Heidi was a sophomore.

"Yeah, those were good times," Lily agreed.

"Oh, no kidding. Simpler too," Husky added, without need for elaboration. Things had certainly changed. Now, his relationship with his sister had frosted over so completely that they couldn't even be around one another unless one or both were unconscious. And Lily well, let's just say he was lucky she was even still talking to him, let alone being civil.

The first stop was an old beatdown gas station outside of Iowa City, IA, where Husky filled the 25 gallon tank while Lily went inside to use the ladies room and purchase snacks for the 17 hours ahead of them. It was still mid-morning and they had made good time on the open road, letting the loud thrum of The Beast's powerful engine fill in the occasional silence.

No one bothered to wake Heidi. If they got lucky, she'd sleep straight through to New York.

Once they were back on the road, Lily drifted off to sleep and didn't wake until the sun was well overhead and out of their eyes as they continued ever east. She lifted her head from the window and smoothed her palms over her hair to make sure it was still in place as a yawn cut through her mouth.

She checked the dash and saw that it was a little past 2 o'clock. A brief glance told her that Heidi was still sound asleep. In sleep she lost all sense of her anger and was sprawled out across the back, one foot propped on a white suitcase, another lodged between two others, with her arms spread out wide and her mouth open in a silent snore.

Laughing, Lily turned back in her seat, in time to catch Husky looking at her. He was so unabashed in his admiration, like he always had been, and Lily found herself blushing.

"What? Is there something on my face?" she asked self-consciously, suddenly feeling like she was back in high school as she pulled the visor down and checked her teeth in the grimy mirror.

"No," Husky said, gently turning his gaze back to the long stretch of highway ahead. "You look great, like always."

There was a moment of silence and then Husky cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry."

Lily's head jerked to the side. Her eyes implored with his profile to explain.

"There are any number of things you could apologize for, Husky. Care to elaborate?" she pressed gingerly, keeping her tone civil without compromising the seriousness of her query.

"For dumping you so flat like that."

"Oh," Lily said, touching her cheek a bit as she looked out the window as they passed yet another cornfield. Her face twitched a bit with a hidden smile, but she did not allow herself the joy of hearing what she'd always hoped was true without knowing more. "So then why did you?"

Husky shrugged a shoulder. "I was young and stupid, I guess. Wanted to play football, wanted to get out of my hometown without anything holding me back." He looked over to her, waiting for her to return his gaze since he was certain that nothing exciting was going to jump out onto the deserted highway of whatever sad Indiana town they were passing. " It was piss-poor behavior, and I've regretted it ever since."

Lily nodded, holding his eyes until he finally looked back to the road.

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Husky. It means a lot to me," she replied, her tone friendly and forgiving.

As if to make sure, Lily looked over her shoulder to see if Heidi was still asleep in her luggage jungle and couldn't hear the heartfelt words coming from the cab. The heavy metal music had stopped, perhaps because the battery had died, or she had pulled the plug from the socket as she rolled about, but there was no longer any cover in case they were caught making nice.

Heidi was just too stubborn to understand how important it was for Lily to no longer resent Husky. While Heidi was new to this world of disliking her brother, Lily had a few years head start and was glad to finally be able to get rid of some of the silent pain she felt whenever she had to see him in the ring, or say his name.

"So, I've got to ask you something," Husky said right as they crossed into Pennsylvania from Ohio. The sun was setting in the rear-view mirror and Heidi had only stirred enough to roll over and grumble something about Wade Barrett before settling onto her side and snuggling with the spare tire.

Lily, with her legs stretched in front of her with her feet on the dash, looked over, slightly suspicious of what was on Husky's mind.

"Yes?" she asked uncertainly.

Husky groaned, as if he hated the very idea of what he was about to ask, and raked his hand over his hair for a moment. "Do you think..." he paused, clearly unaware of how to ask what was on his mind. "It's stupid, really, I shouldn't be worried about it, but I am and I can't stop wondering, so you've got to just tell me, ok?" he asked.

"Fine, done, what's on your mind?"

"What's going on with Heidi and Swagger?" he asked, nearly snarling Jack's surname as a strangely protective look of a mother bear running off another predator came across his youthful face.

Lily inhaled through clenched teeth. Husky was clearly treading into dangerous territory and she was hesitant to open up too much about Heidi's personal life, especially when the girl couldn't even be honest with herself.

Sensing her irresolution, Husky held up a hand. "I know, I know, it's none of my business, right? But I don't care how annoying she is, when I saw them in the practice ring that day, you know..."

"The day we fought about who would tell Heidi about Percy's article?" Lily finished for him, recalling the situation instantly.

"Yeah, that one. Anyway, when I saw them in there, all sweaty and close, YUCK! And then she kissed him!" he groused unhappily, shuddering at the thought of anyone near his sister, let alone a stupid oaf like Jack Thwagger. He grimaced and pressed the gas to pass a slower sedan. "Anyway, I want to know if there's anything to actually worry about."

Lily's lips pressed together to try and staunch her smile, but it eventually became too wide to cover.

"You mean you still care!" she said in a sing-song voice, folding her arms happily over her chest. "You don't want Swagger near Heidi because you can't stand the thought of your baby sister growing up, right?"

Husky looked slightly less than thrilled that Lily had seen through him so easily, but he didn't seem to mind too much.

"I'm only human, Lil, I don't want her to get hurt..."

Lily shook her head and hands, trying to get him to stop talking. "Fine, fine. But to answer your question..." she paused, looking back at Heidi one last time. "I think there's something there," she replied honestly. "I doubt there's much chance of anything happening though, since Heidi's doing a stellar job of running him off."

"Yeah, I noticed she wasn't ringside for his WWE title match and that he didn't come help her when we..." Husky coughed and then cleared his throat once he realized he'd been about to bring attention to the Nexus beatdown they'd given Heidi, Santino, and Kozlov.

Lily felt on edge as he narrowly avoided saying something about the Nexus and hastily picked up the conversation before it spiralled into something more serious.

"I think she's ashamed of him, or of her feelings for him. I mean, to Heidi he's not exactly a great catch. She just sees him as some big blonde dope from Oklahoma, or at least she used to. You should have heard her on the phone today when she thought he picked up. She was so full of girlish delight that it made my stomach flip."

Husky gripped the steering wheel tightly, his jaw stiffening. He'd never had to deal with boyfriends around his sister much.

"Well I can't blame her there, Swagger's a moron and he needs to stay away from her," he carped in a low voice, glaring out the windshield.

Lily narrowed her brows. "Well that's not exactly fair, is it? Heidi won his allegiance fair and square, and what came after didn't have much to do with wrestling. In fact, Heidi spent so much time being oblivious to what was happening that when it finally came to a head she was scared by it and reacted like a cornered animal," she said, sighing and throwing her hand up in defeat. Watching Heidi win in the ring was one thing, but watching her knock people down in other respects got to be exhausting to the gentler Lily.

"So she's still clueless?" Husky asked hopefully. If Heidi was already scaring Swagger off then Husky didn't have anything to worry about. Having her around would be the same as it had been for those two years in high school they shared, where Heidi proved herself more than capable of taking care of herself without his help.

"It's Trevor Hopkins all over again," she moaned, rolling her eyes and laughing softly at the memory.

"Trevor... wait, was that the geeky kid that hung all over her?" Husky asked, trying his best to remember someone who had only made an impression by being so unremarkable.

Lily nodded. "Yup, the black rimmed glasses valedictorian who took her to his senior prom? She had no idea he was into her until I said something. And then, she gave him the cold shoulder. If she keeps this up, you'll never have to worry about being an uncle," she assured, sounding less than enthused.

That sounded all right to Husky though, and he let the conversation fall away, feeling better about the state of things between Heidi and Swagger now.

Miraculously, Heidi slept almost the entire journey there, catching up on sleep missed thanks to training and stress. However, as they crossed the border into New York, Heidi lifted her head and shook it, her wild hair flying in all directions as she shook the sleep from herself rather literally.

It had been nighttime for hours, but travel had always exhausted the young woman and she had no concerns about her ability to fall back to sleep by the time they got to the hotel, which, at the rate they were going, would probably be around midnight.

Husky and Lily both noticed the shifting figure in the back. Husky eyed her through the rear-view mirror and Lily turned around to brace her hands against the back of her chair and peer at her sleepy friend.

"Rise and shine, my dear. We're only a few hours from the big city now!" she said soothingly, censoring the volume of her voice so that she didn't slap Heidi in the face with her cheer.

Heidi scratched her side and yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "A few hours?" she asked sleepily, her words pulled thin through the yawn. She seemed disappointed that she had not woken up to see the hotel before them and instead peered out at the gently sloping mountains that marked southern New York and northern Pennsylvania.

Falling back inside of himself, Husky buttoned up as soon as Heidi started talking. He remembered what the goal was: to avoid conflict by shutting his yammer hole.

However, thanks to her entire day of sleep, Heidi was rather awake for the moment and did not feel like extending to her brother the same courtesy.

"So Husky," she began bitingly, "are you taking us on this cross-country road trip because you want me to win? Are you done with the Nexus and Wade Barrett? Did you have any part in locking us in our hotel room and destroying Lily's car?" she hollered, gripping the back of Husky's chair and shouting her questions in his ear, absolutely demanding for each of them to be answered.

Husky finally lost his reserve.

Slamming his hands onto the steering wheel, Husky caused the Bronco to lurch to one side, the tires hitting the rumble strips on the side of the road, filling the cab with a loud BUMBUM-BUMBUM.

"DAMNIT HEIDI, I'm taking you to NYC, what more do you want from me?" he asked, glaring at her through the mirror.

"I WANT my brother back! Or haven't you been paying attention? I'm here for YOU, ya moron! I hope you know that when I win, I intend to make Sunday family day, so start clearing your schedule." Heidi leaned against the side of the car, one leg bent as she brought her hands behind her head to lean comfortably against the window, which was chilly from the northern night air.

"Oh you're here for me all right, that's why you're battling for a CONTRACT tomorrow. Yeah, jeez, really missed the bus on THAT one!" he threw back, acid stinging in his voice.

"THAT WAS THE GM, NOT ME!"

The shouting and bickering continued for several long minutes until Lily finally slammed her hands onto the dashboard. Both Harris siblings instantly shut up and looked to their right, where Lily was gripping the hem of her skirt and shaking with sobs.

"Listen to yourselves!" she said, her voice choking on the words as tears splashed freely to her tweed pencil skirt. "What happened to you two? Don't you remember what it was like to care?"

"I DO CARE!" they both shouted in unison.

"Why do you think I'm here, Lily? I came to get him back! I don't like what you're insinuating."

"If I didn't care, she wouldn't be in The Beast!" Husky added lamely.

"Uch, would you two just stop it? Just stop!" Lily cried, sniffling and digging into her purse to pull out a couple of tissues that she dabbed her eyes with. "I can't even begin to describe how amazing it's been to have you here, Heidi, but watching you run off Jack like that all because you're too much of a coward to accept your own feelings was too much for me! And I don't even like him!" Lily wailed. "You owe him an apology and you know it, you're just too stubborn to say you're sorry, like you've always been."

Heidi was about to shout back a retort, but Lily was apparently not finished.

"And you! You, Husky! I can't believe after all this that you're still on Barrett's side! He's going to try and put Heidi through a table tomorrow, or drop her 20 feet from a ladder, or beat her again with a steel chair, and here you are worrying about whether or not Jack Swagger is going to break her tender little heart? What about her neck?"

Lily blew her nose and wept some more into her tissues, silence once again falling over the Bronco.

The rest of the trip was spent in heavy, uncomfortable silence. Heidi mentioned once that she had to use the restroom, and Husky stopped once more for gas, but the three of them were as disjointed as Mark Henry was fat. They operated like old vestiges of a well-oiled machine that had met its demise long, long ago.

Husky drove, becoming more sunken until there were so many bags under his beady eyes that it looked like more of a shopping spree. Lily cried silently and stared out the window as she delicately blotted her eyes and nose of moisture. Heidi was in the back, her eyes open and fixed on the ceiling as she mulled over Lily's words, her lip curled, fists gripping her wrists tightly as she pillowed her head against them.

Her need for a plan also snuck back into the foreground of Heidi's thoughts and she began to work things out slowly, wondering just how she was supposed to put Wade through anything when he weighed as much as two Hellcats. She would have to use cunning.

She would have to outsmart him.

Around midnight, The Beast pulled up to the hotel, and Lily and Heidi got out. Neither of them said a work to Husky as he pulled around the back, towing Lily's car behind him. Heidi watched as the Bronco pulled out of sight, standing outside in the cold NYC wind of late December, snow blowing around her feet. She wondered what the Nexus would have to say about Lily's car hitched to the back of Husky's truck and felt a very familiar pang of worry for her brother.

However, Lily soon came to get Heidi and escorted her to their room, where, once inside, Lily disappeared to take a long, hot bath, leaving Heidi alone. Tucked into her bed, Heidi's strategy started to coalesce, and by the time sleep overcame her, she knew what she had to do.

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**READ AND REVIEW! Please.**


	20. Feral Plunge

**Sorry it has taken me so long, but the garden has been keeping me busy! A lot of the match was scripted by my cousin.**

**This is the first story I have ever finished. And there's a part II, don't worry. I'll be taking a break though, from now until then. So enjoy this, I certainly have loved writing it.**

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Lily had everything ready by the time Heidi came back from her morning routine, which quickly bled into the thin sunshine of the chilly afternoon. The tall brunette was positively atwitter with the excitement of her surprise and simply couldn't contain the squeal of delight she let forth as she heard the hotel door unlock from the other side.

Entering with her shoulders sagging under the weight of her sweat-drenched parka, Heidi winced at her friend's high pitched emission and collapsed against the door.

"Holy crap, Lil, it is _COLD_ out there!" she said, her cheeks stained with windburn, her runny nose causing her to sniffle every couple of seconds. Her wild hair, which was usually pulled back from her face, was allowed to blanket her neck and shoulders, poking out with random corkscrews and ringlets from the scarf and hat she yanked off by one dangling string.

Smiling, Lily went over to help pull free the parka as well as the many other subsequent layers of blubber Heidi had piled on before leaving that morning. Neither woman said anything about the road trip, Husky, the Nexus, or how the combination of the three had left both of them feeling. Instead, knowing that Heidi had much more important things to think about than the stirred up feelings of a high school sweetheart, Lily did her absolute best to make sure that Heidi was only thinking about Heidi.

Detecting a hint of mischief in her pal's grin, Heidi mumbled a thank you as Lily began to hang up her coat and hoodies once the Hellcat was back down to her regular workout pants and long sleeved t-shirt.

"All right, out with it. What's up your sleeve?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip in a way that looked expectant, though she was really just trying to catch her breath. The workout regimen that she'd been following was indeed helping to craft her into a finer athlete. Of course, the memory of this brought up Swagger, who had written the whole thing up, and Heidi felt the familiar sting as she replayed their last encounter in her mind.

Too excited with her surprise, Lily did not notice the brief darkening of Heidi's face. She slid the closet door shut and bustled to her bed, moving as effervescently as a butterfly who knew of a particularly aromatic flower. Dropping to one knee, Lily pulled a large rectangular package from underneath the bed skirt, complete with a fat silk ribbon in bright red across the top. With eyes filled to the brim with delight, Lily placed the box in the center of Heidi's bed and waited with her hands pressed together in front of her chest.

"I hope you like it. I had to do a bit of creative thinking to make sure everything was just right," she said nervously as Heidi dashed over and plopped onto the bed, causing the package to bounce with her.

"What is it?" she asked needlessly as she yanked open the lid of the package, tossing it and the bow behind her. A huge gasp overtook her as she stared at the contents, her mouth poised still in a shocked circle as she lifted up the first item.

Inside, was Hellcat's uniform.

"Is this a tiger print top? With beaded fringe at the bottom?" Heidi asked excitedly, standing from the bed in all haste to yank off her long sleeved t-shirt. She fumbled for a minute as she tried to push the fringe out of the way so that she could pull the top over her head. Once it was in place, Heidi looked down to admire the fine work and saw that it was tiger print save for one breast cup, which was playfully done in cheetah.

"OH MY GOD LILY, I LOVE IT!" Heidi shouted, too much in awe of her new costume to do anything other than put it on. She kicked off her workout pants and pulled on a pair of tattered capris that looked as if she'd just walked away from a fight with a lion as the victor. "And it doesn't show my tummy!" she added, obviously in praise for the outfit since Heidi was not interested in being sexy.

The strength of Lily's smile nearly cracked her face in half as she watched her friend examine how the beaded fringed covered the few inches of skin that showed from the bottom of her top to the hem of her capris.

"Oh, I'm so glad you like it! I was worried that it was a little much," she said, leading Heidi's gaze back to the box, where a pair of marginally furry boots were.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Heidi asked with mock indignation as she grabbed one boot and then the other. She kicked her sneakers off and then sat on the edge of the bed to yank on her new fighting boots, that looked as if she'd just sewn them from the hide of her latest kill. "These are so badass, Lil!" she said, standing up to let her get a good look. "And there are gloves too?" she asked as she saw the final pieces of her costume in the box. She pulled them on, looking on as if the treasure chest just kept getting deeper and deeper.

Standing there in her new uniform, Heidi "Hellcat" Harris looked indeed like a jungle Hellcat warrior. Her boots were wild looking, her brown capris were functional and apropos to her gimmick, and the top was as fierce as the cats it portrayed. Once her gloves were on, gloves made of similar material as her boots save for the black, sports material that went around her hands, Heidi ran into the bathroom to look herself over.

"Lily, this is the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me," she said, coming out of the bathroom as she shook her wild hair around to complete the feral look.

Lily just smiled and went forward to give Heidi a light hug.

"It was my pleasure! You're a wrestler now, you need a proper outfit," she said with a pleasantly dismissive nod of her head to suggest that it was nothing.

However, Heidi returned the hug with more force than usual before letting go, and then looked up earnestly at her.

"No, I mean the whole thing. Letting me travel with you, putting me up in your hotel rooms, helping me out with that secret article, not getting mad at me when I got your car wrecked, sticking with me when I was a jerk..." without meaning to, Heidi had turned the simple thank you into an accidental apology. Her face caught up with her heart and she gave Lily a real smile. "You're the best. No doubt about that."

The tall brunette, in her cheetah print kitten heels (in support of her favorite wrestler), choked back a little sob just in time to keep from losing her cool. She knew that tears and emotions made Heidi uncomfortable so she maintained her composure and sighed out a huge smile.

"You're my best friend. Agreed, having you around hasn't exactly been the most _convenient,"_ she tilted her head to the side, looking at the statement she'd gotten from the mechanic, "but I haven't regretted a minute of it," she said. This time, her eyes misted, but she blinked them away and threw her arms around Heidi in another big hug.

When she pulled away, Lily touched the corners of her eyes lightly to ensure that no makeup was smeared, and then clasped her hands together in front of her, beholding the new and improved Hellcat.

"Oh Heidi, you look sen_sational_!"

Hellcat grinned, standing proudly. Then, her eyes drifted to the wall clock and they bugged as if Santino had hugged her again.

"Crap!" she exclaimed, holding her forehead. "I gotta go do something. I'll see you before the show tonight so you can make me all feral and stuff, ok?" And with that, Heidi began to carefully strip from her costume and laid all the pieces out nicely before hopping into the shower to prepare for the most grueling part of her day.

Heidi found Jack Swagger pumping iron in a deserted gym at the arena they were to perform at that night. She watched him through a crack in the door as her feet seemed sluggish, like she was marching to her death. This would be the single most embarrassing apology she'd ever given, and the most revealing. Her stomach was churning like a bottle half full of water in the hands of someone running up the stairs and she actually began to feel sick as she placed a hand over her rumbling tummy.

Forcing herself into the gym, Heidi could hear the clank of metal on metal as Jack went through repetitions. He was at the bench press station, glaring at the ceiling with the singularity of determination that only a professional could exude, his grunts filling the air around him. She noticed that he wasn't wearing his gaudy patriotic onesy, or the black one he'd favored as of late, but looked like a normal guy at the gym in black shorts and a white shirt.

From her vantage point behind him, Heidi could see his blonde brows knitted together with effort and the tawny crop of hair that was currently running with sweat.

Before she had the time to talk herself out of the courage it had taken to even try and _find_ the All-American American, Heidi cleared her throat to catch his attention.

Swagger finished his set and then pushed the heavy barbell back into the holders overhead. He sat up and wiped his brow tiredly, not having seen who the culprit was.

"Can't you find another machine? I'm thtill buthy here," he said impatiently, looking over to the source of the noise only to find the one wrestler he sorely wanted to avoid. "Oh." he said, his voice drier than toast. "It'th _you."_

He sounded about as excited as a kid who'd just learned his dog got worms.

Swagger's face went stony as the memory of Heidi's outrageous insults flew back into his face. She'd called him stupid and publicly embarrassed him, but the most treacherous betrayal of all was how she spat on his feelings. Finally, after much thought, Swagger understood: he embarrassed her. After all he had done to train her and help her, she was not only ungrateful but _ashamed_ to be thought of as his girl. And that, he was pretty certain she had been, at least for a while.

His blue eyes cut to her, accusing her of the unthinkable – hurting his feelings – before he turned away to dig in the ADIDAS bag beneath the bench.

Heidi gulped.

"Jack," she began, trying to get him to look at her.

He grabbed a towel from his bag and wiped his face, ignoring her easily as he hooked his hand through the bag strap and stood, raising his arm to hoist it onto his shoulder. He then dabbed at his neck and armpits, all while decidedly giving Heidi the cold shoulder, and then mopped up the sweat from the bench.

"Jack, PLEASE! I'm trying to do the right thing here," she pleaded as she stepped forward to grab his elbow and whip him around to face her. She was tired of the brush-off and simply _had_ to take action so that the sickening feeling in her gut would go away.

Swagger threw her off his shoulder like a monkey shooing a fly and finished wiping up the sweat.

"I haven't heard an 'I'm thorry' yet, tho you mutht not be trying too hard," he retorted. Then, just as quickly as his witty reply had come, Swagger spun around to face her. She looked truly repentant and he took a small measure of pride in that... right before he tossed the sweat-drenched towel on top of her head.

Gasping with pure indignation, the wild-haired woman pulled the wet and smelly towel from her face, grimacing as a few beads of pure sweat dripped onto her cheek. All manner of apologizing had just flown out the window and she stormed forward after Swagger as he made for the exit.

"HEY!" she called out angrily, spinning her hand so that the towel started to spiral. "I SAID, I'm trying to do the RIGHT THING!"

Right then, Heidi snapped the towel at Jack's bottom, using the damp cloth like a whip. The CRACK that sounded was nothing compared to the surprised howl that left Swagger's mouth as he hurried forward a few paces, reaching behind him to cover his stinging buttock.

"What'th the MATTER with you?" he hollered, turning at last to face her fully.

"I'm in here like a total MORON trying to apologize and you throw your nasty SWEAT TOWEL in my face?" she asked, her rage causing her to whip the towel twice more at Jack's thigh and stomach. Both blows hit and the beefy blonde doubled over a bit as the sting in his abdomen eclipsed the sting on his rear.

"Calm down, would you? I'll lithen thith time!" he assured, squirming away from the next hit, which was carefully aimed for his groin. "HEIDI," he warned in a booming voice as she was readying another mighty crack of her sweat-whip, holding his index finger up like a principle might to a naughty student.

Heidi ignored his warning and snapped the towel again, scowling back as she hollered, "You should have...listened...the first time!" while cracking the towel in between words until she was beginning to exhaust herself, hair flying, heart hammering. At long last, Heidi was showing just how much she cared as her repressed emotions came to a full boil.

Right as the towel was fully taut in the air, Jack's hand whipped down and grabbed it, tugging forward so that the girl on the other end careened towards him. Once caught, Heidi's eyes went wide, her mouth pulling into a tiny dot on her face as she stared up at the big, blue eyes she'd been without for the past handful of days.

"Thtart apologithing," he grunted, holding onto his end of towel and adding his other hand to grip her wrist to keep her from running away.

Heidi sighed and cracked her neck first to one side and then the other, as if speaking these words were going to physically strain her.

"I'm sorry for calling you stupid. And kicking you over in your chair," she said, leaning her free hand on her hip as she gave him a good look at her face, letting him search her for insincerity and ulterior motives.

Unsatisfied, Jack squeezed her wrist tighter, as if to punish her for such an incomplete thought.

"That'th it? That'th all you're thorry about?" he asked incredulously, furrowing his brows as she insulted him yet again. "You inthult my intelligenth when you KNOW I'm thmart, you make a fool of me in PUBLIC, and you don't even bother to show up for my WWE Championship match againtht the Mith?" With every sentence, his grip on her wrist tightened, like a noose. "And then, to top everything off, you come in here with thome thtupid apology about kicking me over when you KNOW that I'm upthet becauthe you're ashamed of kithing me?"

Swagger looked to the side, shaking his head as a bitter laugh came forth.

"Jack, let go!" Heidi demanded, stomping her foot and pulling against his strong grip.

"No! Not until you admit that you liked it!"

Heidi growled, her eyes narrowing as she let out an exasperated groan. "THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO, YOU BIG DOPE!"

The Oklahoma native let go of her wrist then, causing Heidi to stumble back before she caught herself against the bench he had just vacated.

"Tho you're thaying..."

"That I..." Heidi suddenly felt embarrassed, her cheeks flushing deep red as a dead giveaway. "That I like you, and have for some time!" she said, closing her eyes and shouting out the words so that she couldn't lose her nerve. There was no denying it now that she'd hollered it in his face. It was somehow fitting that the first time Heidi ever admitted she had feelings for someone that she would scream them at the poor sap after an ambush with a wet towel, but Heidi felt only marginal relief. Now that she had vocalized her emotions and brought them into the light, she felt that sickening churn in her gut again thanks to the voice in her head that told her she was too late. Jack had moved on to someone taller and older and prettier, like Maryse or Alicia Fox. Or he was no longer interested in someone like her at all!

Standing there, red as a tomato, Heidi looked up at Jack, feeling pitiful. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come to grips with that. I didn't mean to spit in the eye of all your help," she said softly, once she was able to finally get to the heart of her long overdue apology.

Swagger looked pleasantly surprised at her reaction, remembering all over again what had attracted him in the first place – her guts. Satisfied, the enormous man shifted gears quickly and in no time at all, his cocky grin had returned as he put both hands on his hips and smirked down at her.

"I knew it," he said arrogantly, reminding _Heidi_ of all the reasons he grated on her nerves.

"You jerk! You're supposed to say something nice now!" she said, swatting at his sternum.

"All right, all right," Swagger conceded with a little roll of his eyes. "Jutht one more thing though," he said, leaning down as if he had a secret. "You didn't admit that you liked kithing me."

Heidi balked, her jaw dropping as he tried to pour lemon juice all over her sliced pride.

"Oh COME ON!" she said, laughing at his ridiculous request. Hadn't she shared enough of her warm and fluffy feelings for one day? "Can't that wait until later?"

Jack was not kidding though, and shook his head as he looked straight at her, their faces mere inches apart.

"You could alwathy prove it," he said suggestively, leaning closer so that he could _finally_ kiss her again.

Grinning, Heidi pushed her index finger to his lips before he had the chance to land the smooch. Jack's eyes opened, looking down at her curiously, his eyes searching hers for any sign of foul play.

"I'll do you one better. You'll see," And then, without further explanation, Heidi dashed out of the gym, leaving Jack to the reps that he could now complete with the smugness he so enjoyed.

"_Heya Hellcat! You see this here? This is Husky's room!" Heath Slater said in a taunting, sing-song voice as he and Justin Gabriel posed in front of a hotel room for the cameraman, who was catching the scene on video tape for the audience packed in for the pay-per-view._

"_Yeah, we know about his little stunt in getting you here so we decided to keep him from making any more mistakes," Gabriel explained, knocking on the door and then going quiet to listen for the reaction on the other side. When nothing was forthcoming, he and Slater shared a laugh, the latter shrugging his shoulder._

"_Oh well, Hellcat. Guess there's no one to come save you now!"_

From backstage, Hellcat watched the clip of the Nexus barricading her brother with a stoic expression. She had never counted on Husky to come save her, she had never asked for his help, nor had she in any way counted on him like she used to. Instead, the clip merely steeled her nerves, knowing that, at the very least, the Nexus was down by one.

The main event came quicker and with a greater vengeance than Hellcat had thought possible. The heavy boos that came before her (thanks to Wade Barrett) were replaced with youthful cheering as _'O Green World'_ began to play, the techno groove ushering in the new and improved Hellcat, complete with crazy curls that bounced any which way they pleased.

The fans went wild at the sight of her new outfit and Hellcat played along, grinning and pumping her fist in the air as she boogied down the ramp and towards the intimidating steel cage. Wade Barrett was already standing at the steel steps, one foot lifted on them as if he had a bit of the cap'n in him, and a smirk on his face that she wanted to punch inside out.

"Lily, wow! Look at Hellcat tonight! This is the most professional we've ever seen her," Lawler complimented, leaning back in his chair and waving his hand towards the caged ring.

"Oh what do you mean, professional?" Cole countered, CM Punk nodding next to him. "That ridiculous outfit isn't going to help her win this match!"

"I've got to agree, Cole," Punk said, adjusting his microphone as his eyes, heavy with disdain, followed Hellcat as she approached the steel steps. "That uniform will probably be the most exciting part of this main event. I don't even LIKE Wade and I know he's going to win," Punk added, turning a smug look to Lily, whom he simply loved to torment now.

Rolling her eyes as she watched the referee unlock the steel cage, Lily tucked a sheet of sleek brown hair behind her ear. "Please, the uniform is a must for any wrestler who wants to be taken seriously. I'd say she's already showing determination towards this match if she cared enough to show up looking like a real Hellcat."

Climbing the steps, Hellcat swallowed hard and scoped the layout of the ring to see where exactly the table, ladder, and chairs were. However, as soon as the door shut behind her, the referee locked the cage and the match began, the bell ringing out to send the crowd into their excited chatter.

Hellcat spotted the pile of arsenal lying out of the way in the ring in one place, with Wade Barrett being the closer of the two to the potential weapons. With a loud roar, Hellcat rushed at the British goon, intending to take him out at the knees to land on top of the table, ladder, and chairs. However, with his mind also on speed, Barrett ran at the pile and grabbed a folded steel chair. He swung as she bolted towards him, as if he were going to play the most violent game of baseball ever, a severe look on his face.

"He's going for the steel chair, can he connect..." Lawler asked as Wade brought his arms back completely to swing the chair with all his force into Hellcat's face.

"Nope!" Lily cheered happily as Hellcat slid underneath the blow, hopping to her feet on the other side while Barrett gave one full rotation from the momentum. As he was gaining his balance, Hellcat lunged forward, grabbing the chair with both hands and wrenching it from his grasp to toss it aside, the chain link clanking as the steel chair collided.

Fighting back, Hellcat made sure her feet were planted and then sent a donkey kick to Wade's stomach, doubling him over as a loud "ugh!" flew from his lips on the wings of spittle. Grabbing his arm, Heidi leaned back and started to run, forcing Wade's feet to follow as she pulled him into the ropes to set up for one of her favorite moves – the Hellcat Feral Lunge.

As Wade was flying into the middle of the ring, Hellcat was on the other end, crouched down until the final moment, when she sprung, her arm hooked out to catch Wade's knees and topple him over onto his big, ugly, crooked face.

"She's going for the lunge!" Lily said, nearly biting her pristine manicure down to shreds.

Right as the move was about to connect, Wade's wits returned to him and he instead countered the move by bringing his boot up to kick Hellcat in the face. Royally booted, Hellcat flew so hard that she did a backwards somersault to land in yet another crouch, shaking her head as she tried to keep her rolling eyes on the greasy prize.

"Both Barrett and Hellcat are taking a bit of a breather, it looks like," Lawler said, tapping his pencil on the desk in front of him as he clearly disapproved of kicking girls in the face.

"Ha, did you see how far she flew?" Cole asked, looking over to CM Punk who also looked somewhat pleased. However, being the wrestler that he was, Punk did not count Hellcat out of the equation just yet.

Lily glared over at the two men making such merry of her friend's potential injury. "Of COURSE she flew, he's twice her size!"

"She should have thought about that before she got in the ring with the leader of the most dominant group the WWE has ever seen!" Cole retorted, each word a slap in Lily's face. "She's toast! The only reason Barrett isn't the victor already is because he's been holding back."

"That's funny," Lawler interjected in that tone of voice that let everyone know he had something funny to say. "I thought it was because he put too much oomf on that swing and Hellcat out-maneuvered him."

Barrett walked around, regarding Hellcat with the same look he gave to all pleasant things, and wiped his nose, nodding at the referee. There was indeed no holding back now. She stood as an insult to his leadership and his prestige and he would stand for her mockery no longer.

He ran forward, all 260 pounds of him intent upon ending this pitiful charade before she had the opportunity to gain any more momentum. He grabbed one of her arms and then jerked her towards him, lifting her arm over his head to pull her onto his shoulder in the perfect setup for a Wasteland.

"THIS IS IT!" Punk vociferated, throwing himself forward from his seat to watch the meddling brat get what she had coming.

The crowd began to boo loudly as Wade stood up, carrying Hellcat with him on his shoulders like a deer he lugged home for that night's supper. However he quickly lost grip on her as she began to squirm, elbowing him full-force in the side of the head time after time until finally she slid down his back.

Landing with catlike agility, Hellcat, never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, hooked one leg around Barrett's ankle and then pulled back as hard as she could while shoving forward with her hands.

"Oh, she's knocking him down like a tree! I'm impressed, I think that outfit has gotten Hellcat into the right frame of mind to win this thing!" Lawler said with a full smile, clapping a little as the large WWE superstar fell face-first, hitting the mat for the first time that night.

Barrett struggled to his hands and knees, crawling to the corner to lean against the ropes and gather his breath while the crowd cheered his demise. Holding onto one rope, Wade attracted the attention of the referee, who came over to check if he was well enough for the rest of the match. Barrett shooed him away with a heavy swing of his arm and hoisted himself up the ropes into a standing position, shaking his head to clear the smarting sensation from his already crooked nose.

With her heart thudding with ever increasing speed, the rush of blood the only sound she could hear save for the occasional, errant cheer, Hellcat ran over to the chair she'd flung away from him earlier. Picking it up, she turned around to wield it like a club, holding the legs as she watched Wade Barrett stagger to his feet.

She ran forward, swinging the chair at Wade's middle to double him over again, taking away his height advantage so that, maybe, she could knock out a few of his teeth. Alas, at the last minute, Wade held his arm out, taking the brunt of the blow away from his middle, though the crash of metal on his arm rang from the steel cage to the furthest reaches of the stadium.

The blocked blow caused the chair to vibrate from the hit, shaking Hellcat's arm so much that she had to let go and hold her hand. Wade allowed her no such time for recovery though, and grabbed her injured hand, yanking her close and pulling her leg up to hoist her onto his shoulder, setting up for another Wasteland.

Wade gave a smirk full of hubris to the crowd as their faces hated him from the other side of the steel cage, the people booing and throwing their empty cups at the ring.

"Oh my god," Lily breathed, holding a hand to her mouth as the breath shot from her lips. This was it.

With a laugh that turned into a twisted roar, Wade leaned back and then threw Hellcat forward onto the mat, where she struck so hard that she bounced up once, completely airborne, and then fell again, limp.

"That's it, ladies and gentlemen. Just like I said it would end, Wade Barrett picks up the victory over the intruder, Hellcat!" Cole announced gleefully, standing to applaud the Brit's fine performance.

Wade dropped and hooked both of Hellcat's legs in one of his big arms, pinning her knees to her chest just as her senses came back to her. The crowd started to clap in a slow, rhythmic chant that soon caught around the arena like wildfire, the chant of "HELL-CAT!" in time with their claps as they tried to rally the done-for woman from almost certain doom.

Hellcat's eyes opened just as she saw the black-and-white striped jersey come rushing at them, his arm swinging high into the air to pound the mat once. She had lost.

CM Punk joined Michael Cole, the two of them offering a standing ovation to Wade Barrett's impressive Wasteland, glad to finally be rid the pesky fly they had been fruitlessly swatting at for over a month.

Lawler shook his head, his expression the very face of disappointment. He sighed, forcing himself to watch as the ref swung his hand up to deliver the two count.

Hellcat had lost. It was over. There was no way she could pull her shoulders up from the mat with her knees squashed against her chest. The slightly hairy boots were silhouetted by the bright lights glaring into Hellcat's squinting eyes as she remembered, again, that no one was coming to save her. Her mind flashed to Swagger, but he didn't have the time.

She had lost this one all on her own.

Wade, figuring that he had won, started to stand by the time the referee was bringing his hand down for the third and final count.

And that was all the window Hellcat need.

In a surge of strength, the blonde spitfire kicked her legs up, breaking free of the count mere seconds before THREE was called.

"TWO AND A HALF, HELLCAT KICKS OUT OF THE WASTELAND AT TWO AND HALF, A FEAT UNHEARD OF!" Lily screamed excitedly, leaping from her seat and holding the headpiece to her ear to make sure that every home viewer was sure of what she had said.

Back to her feet, Hellcat leaned against the ropes as the referee came over to check if she was all right enough to continue. She was smart enough to take the small breather this allowed her, and only nodded when she had caught her breath.

Instantly, the wall of black-and-white moved clear to reveal a spitting mad Wade Barrett at the other end of the ring, his arms along the top rope, looking like a bull scraping his hooves. He watched her carefully, with a look that promised not to make the same mistake twice, reminding her with a cruel sneer that it was only because of him that she was still in the match.

Hellcat ran for the chair with the singular intent to keep a weapon in her hands if at all possible. Against a bigger opponent she could use all the advantages she could get. The possible risk of having the chair stolen from her was one she was willing to take, especially after she had almost lost her only opportunity to win her brother back.

Wade too was hellbent, but only to finish the match. He moved quickly and with the fluid motions of someone who had performed the same move over and over, trying to pull Hellcat into yet another Wasteland.

"Wade just won't back down, he wants to end this as brutally as possible," Punk commented, nodding his head as he leaned his arm over the back of his chair, like he were a coach giving notes on a game well played.

"But Hellcat won't either!" Lawler replied.

The crowd's cheering made the whole place thrum as Hellcat artfully dodged the grab he aimed at her arm. Wade stumbled for a mere moment and his female opponent wasted no time in slamming the chair against his back, cutting him to his knees as he howled in pain. She could take no pleasure in the scrunched look of pain her enemy wore and waited as Wade got to his feet and turned around to face her, earning another deafening CRACK from the chair. With a woozy expression, Wade fell back like a single domino.

Thinking fast, Hellcat opened the folding chair and placed it in front of Wade Barrett and then ran to the other side of the ring to try her Feral Lunge a second time. She crouched down, her arm hooked over the rope as she waited for Wade to lumber to his feet.

Once he was standing, Hellcat burst forward, running as fast as she could, throwing her arm out to hook around his knees.

"This time she connects!" Lily called, sitting back down and scooting forward so that she could be as close as possible to the action.

Barrett's knees buckled, his feet sweeping from underneath him to force him, once again, forward. He fell like a great elm and didn't realize until it was too late that he was going to crash face-first into the folding chair she had set up while he was down.

As his head struck the steel seat his entire body went floppy and he fell to the ground to eat mat.

The crowd, Lily, and Lawler were all on their feet as Hellcat grabbed one of his heavy legs and leaned back for the cover.

Hellcat could not see what the crowd was gasping and screaming about, having long ago stopped listening to them as she narrowed her focus. She would not make the same mistake Barrett had and let up on her hold before she was absolutely certain that the victory belonged to her.

The referee slid towards her, swinging his arm up for the one count that was totally lost as the crowd began screaming and booing at something neither Hellcat nor the referee could see.

Horrified, Lily watched as Justin Gabriel hopped out from underneath the ring before the referee had even begun counting.

"What's he got there?" she shouted, pointing to where Gabriel was fumbling with something small and silver just as the rest of the Nexus (minus Husky) were flying down the ramp.

"HE'S GOT THE KEY!" Lily shrieked, trying to get the ref's attention.

It was too late though. By the time Justin got the cage door open, the referee was only counting TWO and the dogs were inside.

Immediately, David Otunga ran at Hellcat and slammed his hip into her, knocking her off his boss, who was sufficiently wasted for the time being. Michael McGillicutty rushed in to help his teammate, grabbing the steel chair she had used to defeat Wade and folding it thin again. Raising it over his head, McGillicutty brought it down on Hellcat's back, causing her to yelp and jump in pain.

Slater and Gabriel came next, hoisting her up to her feet and throwing her into the ropes. On the rebound, both men were readied with their arms stacked on top of each other, catching Hellcat in the gut, her air shooting from her lungs as they forced her back into the ropes. This time, as she bounced back towards the pair, she moved right into a face-buster from the One-Man Rock Band.

"It is chaos in there tonight, ladies and gentlemen, and things are starting to look pretty bad for Heidi "Hellcat" Harris," Lawler said, trying to keep as fair a spin on a bad situation as he could.

"Oh what is THIS?" Punk demanded to know as he watched Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, Randy Orton, and John Cena storm the steel cage, throwing wide open the door Gabriel had unlocked to pour into the ring like a mob.

Immediately, John Cena pulled the table forth and set it up in the middle of the ring while Mysterio dragged Hellcat by the ankles into the corner where she was less likely to be injured. She was not bleeding, like the last time she'd been struck with a chair by the Nexus, but no amount of patting her face helped to rouse her.

The roar of the crowd had become something truly incredible as they watched the purple-shirted hero duck a swing from Otunga. As David left his arm groping for the attack, Cena grabbed it and pulled him onto his shoulder, where he kicked and wriggled, but to no avail. With a mighty heave, Cena delivered an Attitude Adjustment that sent Otunga from the A-List to the B-List.

"I'm surprised to see Randy Orton here," Lily said, looking left and right to see if her colleagues shared her sentiment. "I mean, I'm certainly _glad_ to see him, but he never showed an interest in helping Hellcat before. I wonder what changed his mind."

"Lily, I hear what you're saying," Lawler answered, "but I think most REAL men," here he took a glance Cole and CM Punk, "are sick to their stomachs to see a group full of guys beating up one girl. Maybe Orton's just listening to his instincts."

"Oh please, Orton is playing the numbers game. By interrupting a main even he puts himself in the limelight and aligns himself towards this perpetually PATHETIC underdog. He's not doing anything noble, I can promise you that," Punk sniveled, rolling his eyes at both Lily and Lawler's disgusting naivety.

Back in the ring, Randy Orton was just setting up the other steel chair a few paces from the ropes. He turned around to throw a clothesline at Slater, who was trying to attack him from behind to give McGillicutty the chance to give Orton a DDT onto the very chair he himself had set up. With their foul plan botched, Slater hit the ground and flopped over onto his boss's motionless form, leaving McGillicutty alone with the Viper.

With his cold, dead eyes, Orton dodged one attack from Michael, ducking as his punch went wild and then waited, ready to strike. When Michael came back, Randy was ready and grabbed McGillicutty's head to administer an RKO onto the steel chair. His head struck first and then he tried to stand, an amazing effort in and of itself, only to stumble right into a flying dropkick from the top rope by Rey Mysterio.

The fans went berserk as McGillicutty fell to his knees and then crumpled onto his face.

Lily clapped right along with the crowd, hardly knowing where to look until she noticed Justin Gabriel climbing to the top of the turnbuckle. Her delicate fingers clenched her pen as she tried to see who was in the line of fire and then stood up, throwing her pen at the cage as she saw Heath Slater dragging Hellcat's body from the protection of the corner.

"SWAGGER, DO SOMETHING!" Lily harped, leaning forward on both hands as she tried to get the All-American American's attention from the headlock he was ruthlessly squeezing around Otunga's neck.

Jack looked up as he heard Lily's voice, the shrillness of it cutting easily over the din of the crowd. He looked left and saw nothing that required his immediate attention, but as he looked right he saw Heath Slater moving out of the way with Hellcat lying, unconscious, in the perfect position to receive Gabriel's 450 Splash.

Roaring, Swagger dropped Otunga, who held his throat and took heaving breaths to regain his oxygen. The 265 pound haystack moved quickly, jumping over Hellcat's body to proceed like a train off it's track right up the turnbuckle, using the bottom two ropes like stairs. Gabriel kicked at Swagger to push him off but the All-American American was not done in so easily. His face was furious, even more so than usual, and it was the last thing that Justin Gabriel saw as Swagger brought his fist out and then swung a huge haymaker. The punch hit Gabriel on the chin, toppling him over backwards to hang in the ropes, both hands holding his face, which had started to bleed.

"How about that Swagger!" Lawler said, for once with something like praise to say about the tall blonde wrestler. "Looks like whatever issues he and Hellcat had were worked out, because he is on fire right now! Look at him!" He said, throwing his arm towards the ring as Swagger unceremoniously untangled Justin from the ropes by grabbing his ankle.

"HE'S GOING FOR THE ANKLE LOCK!" Lily said, unable to control the volume or excitement of her voice.

Once Swagger had the ankle lock on Gabriel, he roared angrily and started to drag the South African towards the door of the steel cage.

"Where is he going?" CM Punk asked, his lip curled into a frightfully disapproving glare.

Swagger dragged Gabriel down the steel steps, his head bouncing off each stair as he was promptly escorted out of the arena entirely, bleeding and scraping as Jack Swagger took him out of the competition as literally as humanly possible.

"I can't BELIEVE Swagger just did that!" Cole shouted hatefully, as if he took the act as a personal affront. "Someone needs to take him under their wing and remind him what being a WWE superstar is all about! He's lost sight of himself all because of THAT girl right there," he said, pointing childishly to where Hellcat was still lying, out cold.

"Oh stop it, Michael! You're only bitter. Swagger is showing us a renewed aggression and you're upset that it was brought on by actually giving a hoot about someone? You're too much," Lily said, shaking her head to stop herself from saying something unladylike.

"Its not ABOUT that, Lily," Punk snapped, "its about consistency. He and Hellcat have had their share of ups and downs so its obvious that, as a team, they need to break up."

"Weeeeeeeell," Lawler began, drawing attention away from the bickering beside him, "it looks like both of the legal wrestlers are still out and show no signs of getting up! I've got to wonder who has the real advantage here."

Just then, The Miz ran down the ramp, the crowd and commentators alike reacting loudly as the WWE Champion charged the ring like a river that had escaped it's dam.

Inside the steel cage, Randy Orton had just delivered a scoop slam to Heath Slater and was watching for the perfect moment as the One-Man Rock Band blundered to his feet. However the perfect moment never came as The Miz rushed Orton from behind, sending him sprawling headfirst into the steel cage.

Sheamus flew down the ramp then, running as fast as his alabaster legs could carry him and leaping onto the top steel step. Throwing open the now-useless door, Sheamus stepped inside and looked around for Hellcat, remembering all too well how she had given him a dual set of knees-to-the-face, rendering his match a disqualification all those weeks ago.

The crowd went from booing the Irishman's arrival to suddenly cheering as yet another body stormed the caged ring, this time none other than John Morrison! His bedazzled pants glimmered like tiny beacons of hope as the lights hit them, moving faster than Sheamus had and ascending the steel steps on the wings of applause.

With Sheamus still in front of him, Morrison lifted a leg to side-kick the ivory tower further into the ring, where he fell on his knees.

Once inside, Morrison continued his assault on the King of the Ring, Sheamus O'Shaunnessy, drop-kicking him in the chest so that he stumbled back. On his way, Sheamus tripped over the form of Wade Barrett and then landed hard on his bottom, wincing and holding his lower back as he stood up.

The Miz kicked Hellcat so that she rolled out of the way, regarding her as little more than trash that was beneath him to dispose of. Just then, a fresh faced John Morrison charged the obnoxious WWE Champion, throwing his body into the turnbuckle in a might body slam. The Miz fell down, holding his shoulder as John Morrison set up for his finisher.

"Oh, and here it comes," Lily said with a small smirk on her face.

Morrison hopped up, bouncing both legs off the top ropes and then started to spin in an impressive aerial display.

"STARSHIP PAIN!" Lily cheered as Morrison's finisher hit, leaving The Miz temporarily down for the count.

"Don't count out Sheamus," Cole snidely reminded as the King of the Ring threw Slater across the ring, landing harmlessly on the table, and then hastily scrambling off before he was put through it.

Feeling proud, John Morrison reveled in the whooping crowd as he stood up from the Starship Pain and looked around, just in time to receive a brutal Brogue Kick from Sheamus.

"What did I tell ya?" Cole asked, looking straight at Lily as if this had become a personal war between the two of them.

Morrison spun around completely, his hair and mouth flying slack until he crumpled to the ground and remained there.

"All right, I've had it," CM Punk declared, standing up and throwing off his headset. Before Lily could register what he had in mind, CM Punk had hopped over the announcer's table and was climbing the steel stairs!

Cole looked on and then, after a particularly unpleasant grin, he too threw down his headpiece and charged the ring.

"COLE, GET BACK HERE!" Lily wailed, kicking off her kitten heels under the table. She scooted back in her chair, as if readying to join the action in the ring and was stopped only by the calming hand that Jerry "The King" Lawler placed on her armrest.

Punk's direction was clear and he wasted no movements at all as he rushed into the cage, which was quickly turning into a free-for-all. His eyes were trained on John Cena and all of the sign waving, purple-shirted bologna that he embodied.

Cena had Otunga on his shoulders again but was thwarted as CM Punk rushed him in a powerful clothesline, knocking Otunga off to collide headfirst onto the table. Cena fell to one knee as he looked up to his attacker, befuddled to see Punk, who should have been at the commentator's table.

Punk's eyes were like a pair of twin Mars, burning holes through Cena's skull as he kicked Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect square on the chin. The larger, broader Cena fell over backwards, and Punk, never one to let moss grow on a good thing, started stomping his enemy's face, holding onto the ropes and jumping to drive his boot forcefully onto Cena's neck and head.

Meanwhile, Rey Mysterio had just moonsaulted Heath Slater, driving the ginger into the mat. Heath was not so easily disposed of, however, and leapt quickly to his feet. Alas, he jumped up too fast and was the victim of a scoop slam from Orton that had him seeing a circle of birdies around his dizzy head. He scuttled to the ropes, hanging there to catch his breath and wipe his brow, relishing in the small reprieve as he unwittingly lingered in the perfect setup for a 619.

"What's Del Rio doing here?" Lily and Lawler both exclaimed as Alberto del Rio charged the ring as well.

"He was on Team Hellcat, but I don't think he's here for her tonight, guys," Lily said, looking over to Lawler, who was the only person still at the table with her.

Mysterio had just leaned on the ropes to build his momentum for the 619 that would eliminate Heath's threat in the match. He was running but seconds before he grabbed the ropes, Alberto del Rio, who obviously cared more about his hatred for Mysterio than helping Hellcat, tackled his sworn enemy brutally to the ground. Over top of him, the Mexican Aristocrat started wailing on Mysterio, pounding his fist again and again into the black mask he loathed so entirely.

Lawler had finally seen enough.

He tossed his headset and then abandoned Lily to take care of the commentary as he jogged around the table and up the steel steps as the cage about the ring rattled from all the commotion inside.

Lawler's first victim was Alberto del Rio, whom he kicked off of Mysterio, giving the latter a chance to hop to his feet and shake off the blows that had almost done him in. The King then turned around and spotted his number one target: Michael Cole. Cole was trying to help The Miz up from the mat, pulling on his arms and pleading for him to start standing. Still dizzy from the Starship Pain, The Miz sat up, but his head lolled heavily, his chin drooping to his chest.

"Michael Cole is desperate to get The Miz on his feet but I don't think he sees Lawler behind him," Lily announced heatedly, her voice firm and excited. Unable to see much of the action, Lily moved back her chair and climbed onto the table, standing in her bare feet while the rest of the world got an excellent view of her tiger-print dress.

Stepping forward, Jerry Lawler tapped on Michael's Cole's shoulder. Cole looked behind him and then flew forward as Lawler landed a punch so hard that a mouthful of spit flew from the commentator's lips.

However, this unintentional sacrifice gave The Miz the time necessary to stand. Waiting for Lawler to turn around from his revelry as the crowd praised him for doing what they all wished they could, The Miz wiggled his fingers, staying low to pounce. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, the champ streaked towards Lawler and put his hands behind his head, staring back at the crowd with a detestable grin, rubbing it in their faces as he made them watch. Kicking Jerry's feet out from underneath him, The Miz gave him a Skull-Crushing Finale and then hopped up to point at the audience with a sick smile on his face.

As he was taunting the crowd, doing his best to secure himself as the biggest and most loathsome heel in the company, The Miz turned around and then startled as he walked right into an RKO. Orton fans from around the arena flew from their seats with fists raised in the air as he put an end to the _awful_ WWE Champion.

"Oh it is absolute anarchy in there, ladies and gentlemen!" Lily announced, using her solitude to prove how fine a broadcast journalist she was. Holding the headset to her head, she carried on to say, "from my vantage point I can see CM Punk continuing the assault on John Cena, who is not looking good, my friends. In the other corner, we have the river-rat, Alberto del Rio giving Mysterio a brutal Rolling Cross Arm Breaker, and it looks like Sheamus is going for the High Cross to Morrison!"

Standing like a pillar of the whitest porcelain, holding John Morrison in an overhead T position, Sheamus' intent was clear.

"Oh my goodness, this is exciting! Sheamus has set up a chair and intends to put an end to Morrison once and for all here at this TLC Cage Match! The two legal wrestlers are still out cold, but can they survive the mayhem without getting hurt?" Lily asked, glowing as her moment to shine brought out the very best in her. Without having to compete with Cole and Punk she was allowed to do what she did best: call things like she saw them.

As Sheamus was stepping forward to throw Morrison over his head and into the chair, his opponent started to wriggle and easily crawled out of the High Cross, landing on his feet behind the enormous Irishman.

Thwarted, Sheamus turned around and grabbed at Morrison's arm to throw him into the chair instead, this time connecting so that both the glittery-panted buffoon and the steel chair went rolling.

"And now we're back to Cena as he tries to block the savage blows from none other than CM Punk, who somehow thought it was his job to interfere in this match as well!" Lily continued.

Punk was absolutely ravenous with rage. His eyes were wide and frenzied as he punched and kicked again and again. After a punch that landed so hard that even Punk had to shake his hand afterwards, Cena started to stand. The crowd stood with him, hoping that, at last, someone would punish Punk for all his misdeeds.

With silent hatred, CM Punk swung again to keep Cena from standing.

But this time, John Cena caught Punk's errant fist.

From every corner of the stadium, people were cheering as Cena got to his feet and then hauled Punk onto his shoulder. With that signature grin that everyone associated Cena with, the purple-shirted man threw Punk sideways off his shoulder in yet another stunning Attitude Adjustment.

Adding insult to injury, as Punk was trying to get up, Cena grabbed his foot and then locked his legs around Punk's, putting him immediately into an STF and pulling back mercilessly on his chin to drive the pain into every part of the greasy jerk's body.

Morrison, who was recovering from the tumble into the steel chair, climbed to the top rope, waiting for Sheamus to turn around and notice him. As he did, The Guru of Greatness jumped, drop-kicking the King of the Ring into the ropes to dangle, ready for the 619.

Seeing that Sheamus was set up for a flawless blow, Morrison looked frantically around for Mysterio. Spotting del Rio on top of him, giving the San Diego native a Rolling Cross Arm Breaker, Morrison charged. Standing over top of del Rio, Morrison jumped up and then landed with both legs on top of the Mexican Aristocrat's head.

Alberto del Rio loosened his arm-bar on Mysterio, who rolled away cradling his arm to his chest. The tall Mexican with his almost-golden trunks turned a wretched eye to Morrison, considering him to be his new opponent and yelling at him in Spanish.

"Its Morrison and Alberto del Rio now, who will be the quicker...?" Lily asked hypothetically as she leaned forward, watching everything unfold from the relative safety of her stance on top of the table.

Morrison ran up the ropes as quick as a rabbit running from a predator and then turned, kicking del Rio in the side of the head. Alberto swooned, his eyes going instantly blurry, and then fell into the ropes the same way Sheamus had.

With feeling back in his arm thanks to Morrison's save, Rey saw the chance for a double 619. He chose del Rio first, bouncing off of the ropes opposite his target and then swinging through to drive his knees into his number one enemy's face. Without a moment to spare, Rey leaned back on the ropes again and delivered a second 619 to Sheamus, putting both of them out of the fight for good.

Alberto fell to the side, under the ropes, and lay there, motionless. Sheamus staggered backwards and it took both Mysterio and Morrison to roll him out of the way.

Exhausted, Morrison stuck his hand out for Mysterio to shake, both men nodding as their hands clasped. Lastly, they both walked over and helped up John Cena, who leaned heavily between them on their shoulders as the three men made their way out of the cage.

"There are bodies everywhere," Lily informed as she nodded to Mysterio as the three of them shuffled up the ramp and away from the scene of such awesome carnage. "Wade is down, Hellcat is down, Slater is down, Gabriel has been dragged from the ring in an ankle lock, Otunga is down, The Miz is down, Sheamus is down...!" she said, counting up the bodies she could see and trying to remember who she was forgetting.

The chaos flared brightly, rendering the steel cage a battlefield filled with carnage and bloodshed for all of about 3 minutes and then burnt out just as abruptly. There were bodies strewn everywhere, draped over chairs, tangled limbs, and the slow, steady breathing of people who were not about to stand any time soon.

Miraculously, Hellcat started to stir. She sat up, holding her head and checking for blood, like the last time the Nexus had beaten her with a chair, and held her head for a moment as she tried to make the throbbing pain go away. Every heartbeat was like a pulse of pain through her skull, her face strained to try and will the hurt away.

"HELLCAT ROUSES!" Lily cheered, realizing that her friend was the body she saw moving. There was no missing the hair, and her new outfit certainly helped distinguish her from the other, larger, more noticeably male bodies about her.

She hopped to her feet as a wave of cheers hit the roof and bounced back, the crowd a jumping mob. Looking around her at the carcasses that shared the cage, she wondered just what the heck had happened in the brief time she'd been out. It seemed as if an all out war had gone on, with no clear victor since everyone in the ring was quite out.

Without preamble, Hellcat started to climb the side of the steel cage.

"She's going to escape, the Hellcat is climbing for her freedom AND the victory while Barrett is still on the mat!" Lily announced, grinning down to Jerry Lawler, who had just exited the cage to rejoin his lovely co-anchor at the table on which she was standing.

Hastily fitting his headset on and considerably pleased that he had knocked Michael Cole in the face, Lawler added, "she's got to climb out or knockout her opponent now to win this. The door is unlocked so she can't exit that way for a victory!"

Barrett began to stir, sitting up and shaking his head as he blinked away the tiny dots that danced at the edge of his vision.

Renewed in her purpose, Hellcat climbed faster, scrambling up the side of the cage until she stood at the very top, some twenty feet above where Barrett was just getting to his feet.

Hellcat saw the narrow window of time closing as Barrett's strength came back to him, just as hers had. It was her last chance to silence Barrett and she took it without a second thought to how high she was and how wrong something so risky could go.

"HOLY CATS!" Lawler shouted as Hellcat leapt from the top of the steel cage. "BARRETT IS IN FRONT OF THE TABLE!"

Indeed, Wade Barrett was in the wrong place at the worst time.

As Hellcat gained momentum from her mighty leap, she readied herself and then landed a flawless drop-kick to the British villain. Her hide-looking boots hit him right in the chest before she braced herself for the fall.

Barrett flew back into the table, the weight of his body with the added velocity of her twenty-foot drop kick busted it clean in half to leave Barrett lying in the wreckage.

He was not getting up.

The chairs were set up on each side of the table, having been positioned by wrestlers who met other untimely ends. The only weapon left in Hellcat's arsenal was the ladder.

She grabbed the tall silver ladder and opened it with a yank of her hands in opposite directions. Once it was upright, she moved it carefully to straddle Wade's feet, and began to climb the rungs.

"Why isn't she going for the cover?" Lily asked hysterically, holding her forehead as she jumped up and down. "She has him! SHE HAS HIM! Heidi, go for the COVER!" she shrieked.

Lawler glanced up at his colleague, her floor-length dress and glossy hair seeming suddenly out of place as she lost her mind with worry. "She's out for blood, Lily! She wants to send a message! The Nexus have been ganging up on her and beating her senseless for weeks now. This is the time and place to make a statement!"

Lily pouted, her shoulders slumping as she caught her breath. "But she has him," she whined, gesturing with a bangled arm to the ring, where Barrett was obviously not getting up.

For the first time since the main event had begun, the crowd was silenced. Only the dull murmurs of disbelief were heard as Hellcat ascended one rung at a time to stand at the very top of the ladder. Awed to the point of silence, her fans watched, their stomachs in knots as they waited for the spectacular display.

Just then, the Titantron flickered to life and the Nexus theme song began to play.

"Heidi," a familiar voice rang out, using her real name instead of her stage one.

Hellcat turned as "we are one" faded, leaving Husky Harris alone at the top of the ramp, a microphone poised at his lips. Her eyes burned with a fire that could not be controlled as her brother dared to interrupt the most important match of her life. Without a microphone she could not reply and merely had to listen to what he had to say.

"Heidi, you can stop this. You can go home to mom and dad who MISS YOU. This is... this is crazy! We shouldn't be fighting like this, we're family..."

Right then, Justin Gabriel ran out from backstage and knocked the microphone from Husky's hand as he ran towards the ring. Slater too was standing now and her window of time to put Barrett away once and for all was shut.

Slater and Gabriel stared up at her for a moment and then both rushed the ladder, knocking it over with Hellcat still on top. She jumped out to avoid the jagged debris of the broken table and the unforgiving steel of the ladder. Landing on her hands and knees, Hellcat took a huge breath to regain the wind that the landing had stolen from her.

Her glare as she stood promised that she would not be fazed by such petty motions but she was tiring. After a drop-kick from the top of the steel cage and an ungraceful topple from the ladder, the last threads of her resolve were beginning to unravel.

Husky stood, mouth agape at the ruthless move his teammates had used to try and thwart his sister. When she hopped up he closed his jaw and saw that, as usual, she had not listened to a single word he'd said.

Throwing his arms up in defeat, Husky Harris decided that the time for words was over and that the time for action had come.

To the amazement of the crowd and Lily alike, Husky started walking towards the ring.

"Well, well, well, it looks like CM Punk has finally crawled his way back to the commentator's table. It looks like you took a beating out there, Punk, are you all right?" Lawler asked hypothetically, wearing a falsely civil grin.

CM Punk hoisted himself into his chair, angrily grabbing his headset to place it back on. His chest was heaving as if he'd just run for his life from a bear and his slicked-back hair was as disheveled as his ego.

"That girl is a MENACE!" He shouted, pointing an accusatory finger to the steel cage where Hellcat was trying to face off against Slater and Gabriel. "She's worse than the Nexus... SHE NEEDS TO GO!"

Lily looked down as CM Punk's voice reverberated in her headset. She dismounted the table gracefully with the help of Jerry Lawler's hand, which she held until she was firmly on the ground.

"Oh what's this?" Punk taunted, standing from his chair to face off with Ms. Stark. "Did the little flower get mad because I called her friend out? You've been nothing but a butt-kissing, sign waving FAN of Hellcat ever since she's arrived, UNANNOUNCED might I add, to start wrecking things on RAW and Smackdown! You're just as much a part of the problem..."

Filled to bursting with disgust, Lily approached CM Punk and walloped him right in the nose.

CM Punk looked shocked for the fleeting seconds before he fell to the ground, holding his face.

With an expression that suggested Lily had done no more than take out the trash, the tall and ordinarily pacifistic brunette dusted her hands off and took her seat. She sat tall and proud and allowed herself the privilege of a small smile as Punk groped for his seat again to hoist himself from the ground.

The crowd was cheering right along with Jerry Lawler, who was simply beside himself with a fit of laughter.

"Oh man," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes as another bout of merriment shot through. "You not only got silenced by a girl, but the nicest one in the WWE!" Lawler added, slamming his hand on the table as the joke at Punk's expense just got better and better. "Lily Stark... punched you in the FACE...!" he said, barely able to speak as the guffaws kept coming.

Inside the ring, Hellcat had no time to look and see why the crowd was chanting an unfamiliar name (LI-LY!) or why they were all so excited. Her vision darted back and forth between Slater, Gabriel, and the referee who was standing out of the way. There was no way she could get the three count on Barrett now, despite his immobility.

"Slater and Gabriel are guarding the body of their fallen boss, Wade Barrett!" Lawler said, giving Lily the chance to worry her lip at the sight.

Hellcat looked to them, one after the other, like a lion closed in by other, larger lions, and debated her options. The thought of a double clothesline entered her mind but she dismissed the notion, knowing her brain grasping at straws. She had neither the strength nor the physique to pull off such a move, but there was no much else available to her. If she attacked one, she would be attacked by both, and if there was one thing she knew it was that she was in no position now to fight two strong and speedy opponents.

Just then, the crowd's roar started to grow as the All-American American tore down the ramp, a steel chain dragging behind him from his ankle.

"Oh my, look at this! Swagger is charging to the steel cage, dragging what looks to be a chain behind him! That must be what took him so long to come back, they trapped him!" Lily hollered in total excitement. With Swagger there to even the odds then Hellcat had a fighting chance.

The chain dragged noisily up the steel steps, tearing Hellcat's attention away from Slater and Gabriel for a split second as Jack Swagger re-entered the ring. Justin Gabriel looked nervously at the Okie, having been the victim of a vicious ankle-lock the last time he and Swagger had been in the rinf together, mere moments before.

Despite their earlier reconciliation, neither Swagger nor Hellcat had anything on their mind but triumph. With the crowd losing control of themselves, Hellcat stepped to the side to face Slater, who stood in front of the steel chair on one side of the destroyed table. Gabriel stood in front of the other, and, with a single nod, both Hellcat and Swagger rushed their targets.

"A double charge!" Lawler cried.

Hellcat caught Slater in the middle and sent him hurling backwards at the same time as Swagger sent Gabriel soaring. The flash of cameras and the glare of the lights caught the moment in every spectator's memory as the last remaining members of the Nexus flew into the steels chairs and then moved no more.

Swagger nodded his head towards Barrett, urging Hellcat to make her move before _he_ had the chance to get up and make the match even more brutal.

Hellcat rushed Barrett and flopped onto his chest. Hooking her arms around on of his great legs, she leaned back to go for the cover.

The referee came out from hiding as the whole arena chanted with him, "ONE, TWO...!"

Before THREE hit, Hellcat leaned her head to whisper "gotcha," in Wade Barrett's ear.

When the ref's hand came down to complete the three count, Hellcat sprung up from the wreckage of the table, her face scrunched as she howled so loudly that her voice started to crack. The victory was hers and with it came the spoils.

She could talk to her brother as much as she wanted.

Seeing Husky at ringside from through the chainlink, Hellcat climbed the cage a bit, pointing her finger at him in a promise to speak with him later. He held her gaze, quiet and expressionless, and then nodded.

Lily started to cry, fat tears of joy pouring down her cheeks as she watched the siblings take the first step towards renewing their relationship.

Hellcat looked around for a microphone and started shouting her request to the referee, who could only guess what she wanted by reading her lips thanks to the ear-splitting applause of the crowd. He gave her one and she took it, putting a hand on her hip and catching her breath, grinning confidently as the chant of her name reached the roof.

"I have one last things to prove," she began. "One last person to thank," she said, looking to Lily, who was clapping on top of the table again, this time joined by Jerry Lawler. Hellcat winked at her best friend, and then turned to address the audience, who had gone quiet only to hear what the newest wrestler in the WWE had to say.

Behind her, Swagger was happily tossing bodies out the door. First, he chucked Alberto del Rio, and then he kicked Sheamus so that he toppled painfully down each step. Hellcat caught him in the middle of hoisting Michael Cole onto his shoulder to chuck him out of the ring and then grinned, beating her chest the same way he did when he had landed a victory.

Jack let Cole drop ungracefully into a heap by the door and looked to Hellcat, as if he began to understand what she meant earlier that day about doing him one better. He looked around the arena for a moment, catching his breath, and then looked to the small, unruly young woman before him.

He gazed at her for what seemed like a long moment, watching her lift the microphone to her lips in slow-motion.

"That last person I want to thank is Jack – "

This time, it was Swagger who acted.

He stepped forward and tossed the mic from her hands, an act to which she narrowed her brows and hollered "HEY!" in total confusion. However, there was no mistaking his intentions as he wrapped an arm around Hellcat and picked her up, silencing whatever speech she had prepared by pressing his lips fully against hers.

Lily's tears of joy turned into a long and drawn out "aaaawwwwwwwww!" as she leaned into the fatherly side-hug Lawler offered her. She laughed, her smile outshining the glistening tears, and started to applaud again with the rest of the crowd who simply couldn't get enough of their newest superstar and her accidental boyfriend.

Heidi's breath caught in her chest, her eyes wide for a moment before she finally forfeited to her feelings and threw her arms around Swagger's neck and her legs around his middle, kissing him back forcefully with a handful of black onesy in her fist.

As they parted, neither party could staunch the wide grins that stretched their mouths, and as they walked up the ramp to Hellcat's music, there was no denying that the WWE had just earned a new and thrilling superstar.

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**Lemme know whatcha think.**


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

After the match, Heidi spent a long time in the shower, trying to soothe her aching muscles. The drop kick to Wade and the fall from the ladder had certainly taken their toll and she did not intend to celebrate her victory with a stiff back like some kind of old fogey.

By the time she made it out to the parking lot, Lily and Husky's cars were the only ones left. Husky was nowhere in sight, probably being beaten silly by the Nexus, but Lily was waiting with a huge bouquet of roses and a smile that Heidi could see from across the pavement.

Spotting her from across the parking lot, Heidi began to run towards her friend, wanting to give her a much deserved hug. It was because of Lily that everything had been possible, and she had to admit aloud that Lily was the only reason that Heidi had ever been able to face her feelings for Jack.

However, it seemed also that another group of people were waiting for Heidi "Hellcat" Harris to finally emerge from the arena.

Coming from behind, Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, and Justin Gabriel all charged her, each armed with a steel chair.

Lily screamed and dropped the roses, calling out, "HEIDI, BEHIND YOU!"

But it was not enough time.

Heidi turned around just in time to eat a face-full of chair. She fell back, dazed, her bottom hitting the asphalt before a second hit from Barrett flattened her entirely.

Lily dug into her phone, dialling 911 since it was the only thing she could think of. She grabbed at loose gravel and hurled handfuls of it towards the triad of evildoers but nothing dissuaded them from their intended goal – to take care of Hellcat once and for all.

With the subsequent hits, the already fatigued Hellcat Harris' vision darkened, only able to see snippets of her attackers though knowing full well who they were. Each blow narrowed her vision until finally, she succumbed to unconsciousness and everything went black.

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**Please review my first ever completed story!**


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